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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29054520">I Know A Chick Who Knows A Chick</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broooookiecrisp/pseuds/Broooookiecrisp'>Broooookiecrisp</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>MacGyver (TV 2016)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU, Action &amp; Romance, Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016) Whump, Blood and Injury, CPR, F/M, Friendship, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016) Whump, Jack never dies, Kidnapping, Mild Language, Minor Character Death, Poison, Protectiveness, Rescue, Self-Sacrifice, Teamwork, Violence, Whump, Worried Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016), electric shock, race against the clock</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:20:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>44,363</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29054520</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broooookiecrisp/pseuds/Broooookiecrisp</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack enlists the help of an old friend after a mission exfil goes sideways for him and Mac. Little do they know, they are about to stumble into a whole new set of dangers.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)/Original Female Character(s), Jack Dalton &amp; Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016)/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p></p><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x1 pg-1h2 pg-1y1 pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p>This mission, like so many of their others, did not go down according to plan. With Bozer and Riley getting cut off as their overwatch from back in the War Room, Mac and Jack were on their own in the field with no comms. It was a good thing they made such a good team. Even with Jack’s fine-tuned tactical skills and Mac’s convenient talent with improvising, they barely made it out of this one by the skin of their teeth. That’s not to say they were completely unscathed.</p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x2 pg-1h2 pg-1y6 pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x1 pg-1h2 pg-1y7 pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p>As they ran for cover through the thick woods, Mac noticed Jack’s slight limp. The longer they ran, the more pronounced it was getting but Mac knew he needed to resist the urge to bring it to Jack’s attention. The only reason they had made it this far without stopping was because they were running off pure adrenaline. The moment that stopped, Jack would start to feel the pain and they couldn’t afford to slow down. Not yet. They were already cutting it close with meeting their exfil team. Mac wasn’t even sure they’d make it if they kept up their current speed, let alone if they needed to slow down.</p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x2 pg-1h2 pg-1yd pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x1 pg-1h2 pg-1ye pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p>Jack pushed himself harder and harder. He knew he landed funny when they jumped out of that window, but he didn’t have time to think about it. Even now he was aware of the sharp pain that shot up his leg every time his foot made contact with the ground but stopping wasn’t an option. His job was to get Mac back to exfil in one piece and they were on a time crunch. He could worry about himself later. It wasn’t lost on him that it was getting worse. The swelling had started, and he could tell by the look on Mac’s face that he was over there worrying and probably blaming himself somehow. If he could just get his boy to exfil on time, then he could put his feet up.</p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x2 pg-1h2 pg-1y15 pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x1 pg-1h2 pg-1y16 pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p>Mac could see the tree line ahead starting to thin. They were so close. Just a couple hundred more feet and they would burst into the open clearing where he was praying the exfil team would still be waiting. He was fairly sure they had lost the men who were chasing them, but he’d rather not leave that to chance. The sooner they were in that chopper, the sooner he could check on Jack. Guilt was starting to settle in his gut. He shouldn’t have made Jack take that jump. He should have found another way down. Yes, it was Jack’s job to watch his back and keep him safe but that didn’t mean Mac was okay with him getting hurt in the process. It was Mac’s job to try to think of the best solutions to keep his whole team out of harm’s way in the first place. He had been failing that job a lot lately.</p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x2 pg-1h2 pg-1y1e pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x1 pg-1h2 pg-1y1f pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p>The hope that had been propelling them forward quickly evaporated as they broke the tree line to find an empty field. No helicopter. No medics. No way out. Jack bent forward with his hands to his knees trying to catch his breath while Mac paced slowly with his arms above his head trying to bring his heartrate back down. What now?</p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x2 pg-1h2 pg-1y22 pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x1 pg-1h2 pg-1y23 pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p>Jack let out an exasperated scream. “Damn it!”</p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x1 pg-1h2 pg-1y24 pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p>Mac walked over to check on his friend. Their day wasn’t over yet but at least now they could stop to breathe. Mac gently placed his hand in the center of Jack’s back to steady him.</p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x2 pg-1h2 pg-1y26 pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p>“Hey man, you need to get off that leg. Sit down for a minute. I’m sure I can find some things to make a splint.”</p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x2 pg-1h2 pg-1y27 pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x2 pg-1h2 pg-1y27 pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
  <p>Jack knew the kid was right, but his pride was just as wounded as his ankle. He was the one supposed to be taking care of Mac, not the other way around. Jack swatted away Mac’s hands gingerly so he would stop making a fuss over him. For some reason, the attention embarrassed him. “I’m fine Mac, I’m fine…”</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p></p>
  <div class="pg-1m0 pg-1x1 pg-1h2 pg-1y1 pg-1ff1 pg-1fs0 pg-1fc0 pg-1sc0 pg-1ls0 pg-1ws0">
    <p> </p>
    <p></p>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x2 pg-2h2 pg-2y4 pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p>He could tell by that scrunched up look Mac was sporting that it wasn’t going to be that easy to deflect. He needed to change gears. Go from defense to offense. Jack straightened himself up and turned toward Mac. “What about you? Let me look you over.”</p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x2 pg-2h2 pg-2y7 pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p> </p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x1 pg-2h2 pg-2y8 pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p>Mac rolled his eyes. A classic Jack distraction tactic. Turn the focus on someone else so he could avoid being made over. They had done this song and dance many times before. Mac knew the quickest way to help Jack was to let him do his routine inspection.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x2 pg-2h2 pg-2ya pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p> </p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x1 pg-2h2 pg-2yb pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p>Jack patted his partner down from head to toe. So far nothing seemed out of place, but Mac was good at making light of his pain. In more ways than one. He had almost passed inspection when he felt Mac flinch and let out a little hiss of pain.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x2 pg-2h2 pg-2yd pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p>Mac looked down in shock. This was the first he had noticed anything was wrong. It obviously wasn’t that serious. He could wait. Jack needed to get off his feet like an hour ago. “It’s nothing, Jack. I’m good.”</p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x2 pg-2h2 pg-2y10 pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p> </p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x1 pg-2h2 pg-2y11 pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p>Jack’s eyes widened incredulously to Mac’s response. “Nice try homie. Let me see it.”</p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x1 pg-2h2 pg-2y11 pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p> </p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x1 pg-2h2 pg-2y12 pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p>Mac knew better than to argue when Jack got that tone in his voice. He wasn’t joking around anymore. Mac unzipped his jacket so that they would be able to get a better look. He really did think he was fine but the look on Jack’s face made him second guess himself a little. He followed his partner’s gaze to his lower left side to see his shirt colored with blood. Mac brought his hand to his side in disbelief. All he could say was, “Oh…”</p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x2 pg-2h2 pg-2y16 pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p> </p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x1 pg-2h2 pg-2y17 pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p>Jack wasn’t sure which emotion he should deal with first. Panic was threatening to run him over, but he was also furious. He was furious with whoever hurt Mac and maybe even a little peeved with the kid for not speaking up sooner. Mostly, he was outraged with himself. How could he have not noticed Mac was hurt before? He would never forgive himself if this turned out to be as bad as it looks.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x2 pg-2h2 pg-2y1b pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p> </p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x1 pg-2h2 pg-2y1c pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p>Ultimately, Jack’s worry won out over everything else. His hands went directly to the buttons on Mac’s shirt, but it didn’t feel like his fingers could move fast enough. When he pulled back the fabric, he was both relieved and confused. There was a deep laceration that looked to be about five inches long running along Mac’s abdomen just above his hip. Jack felt some of the tension leave his body. At least it wasn’t a bullet wound! “You’ve got a nasty gash there, bud. It looks pretty deep. You’re gonna need stitched up. How in the world did you get that thing?” Jack couldn’t remember Mac getting into any hand to hand altercations during this mission so it couldn’t have been a knife wound.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x2 pg-2h2 pg-2y23 pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p> </p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x1 pg-2h2 pg-2y24 pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p>Mac looked down so he could assess the damage for himself. It really wasn’t that bad. He would definitely need a few stitches, but he should be fine. As long as he kept it covered up and put a little bit of pressure on it, he should stop bleeding soon.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x2 pg-2h2 pg-2y26 pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p> </p>
    </div>
    <div class="pg-2m0 pg-2x2 pg-2h2 pg-2y26 pg-2ff1 pg-2fs0 pg-2fc0 pg-2sc0 pg-2ls0 pg-2ws0">
      <p>Mac winced a little when Jack tied his jacket around his waist to help put pressure on the wound. “It’s not that bad. Must have cut myself when we were trying to squeeze through that fence.”</p>
      <p> </p>
      <p></p>
      <div class="pg-3x1 pg-3y1 pg-3w2 pg-3h2">
        <p> </p>
        <p></p>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x0 pg-3h3 pg-3y4 pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p> </p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x2 pg-3h3 pg-3y5 pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p>Jack was alarmed again. “You mean that nasty old, jagged fence that was covered in rust?! That thing was filthy Mac! We’ve gotta get you looked at.”</p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x0 pg-3h3 pg-3y6 pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p> </p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x2 pg-3h3 pg-3y7 pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p>Mac agreed that they both needed some attention. “Yeah, and somebody needs to check your ankle. So, let’s just get to somewhere safe and find a phone to call Riles for some backup. They can set up a new exfil location and we can be back in the Phoenix med bay in like 5 or 6 hours.”</p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x0 pg-3h3 pg-3ya pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p> </p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x2 pg-3h3 pg-3yb pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p>That solution didn’t seem to fly for Jack. “That’s way too long for you to be exposed and bleeding like that. I don’t even want to think about all the germs that were on that fence.”</p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x0 pg-3h3 pg-3yc pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p> </p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x2 pg-3h3 pg-3yd pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p>Mac usually knew better than to square off with Jack about these kinds of things, but he was exhausted. The words had left his lips before he could stop himself. “Jack you are overreacting. I’m fine. We don’t need to make a big deal out of this and risk exposing ourselves at a hospital. Let’s just get somewhere to lay low until Riley can get us a ride. Besides, you really need to sit down. I can tell you’re in pain.”</p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x0 pg-3h3 pg-3y11 pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p> </p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x2 pg-3h3 pg-3y12 pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p>The look that flashed across Jack’s face made Mac instinctively take a step backwards. “You may know a lot about a lot, Mac… but I know you and the kind of crap luck we have. And who said anything about a hospital? I know I’m pretty, but the Big Man also blessed me with a little brains too.”</p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x0 pg-3h3 pg-3y15 pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p> </p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x2 pg-3h3 pg-3y16 pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p>Mac could already feel himself giving in to Jack’s plan and he hadn’t even heard it yet. “Okay, if you weren’t planning on a hospital then what did you have in mind? I’m not breaking into a vet’s office again.”</p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x0 pg-3h3 pg-3y18 pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p> </p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x2 pg-3h3 pg-3y19 pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p>A fond smile warmed Jack’s face. “I know a chick who knows a chick.”</p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x2 pg-3h3 pg-3y19 pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p> </p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x2 pg-3h3 pg-3y1a pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p>Mac rolled his eyes again. “What contact could you possibly have in Jersey?”</p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x2 pg-3h3 pg-3y1a pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p> </p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x2 pg-3h3 pg-3y1b pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p>“Can you just trust me, man? I’m freezing my bits off out here. She’s cool, and she knows who I really am, so we won’t have to waste time or energy coming up with a cover story. Plus, she has a cute dog. You’ll love it there.”</p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x0 pg-3h3 pg-3y1d pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p> </p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x2 pg-3h3 pg-3y1e pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p>Mac was still a little hesitant, but he trusted Jack. Maybe if he weren’t so tired, it would have crossed his mind to ask about the second “chick” Jack had mentioned.</p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x0 pg-3h3 pg-3y1f pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <hr/>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x0 pg-3h3 pg-3y1f pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p> </p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x2 pg-3h3 pg-3y20 pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p>It only took them about 30 minutes to make it to a road, and from there it was just a short walk into a town. Neither of them had a working cell phone to call a cab so Jack went inside a gas station and had the clerk call for them. It felt so good to be sitting down. Jack’s whole leg was throbbing now. He had over done it, but the risk was worth the reward. Mac would get help sooner rather than later, and Jack… well, Jack would get to see her again.</p>
        </div>
        <div class="pg-3m0 pg-3x0 pg-3h3 pg-3y22 pg-3ff1 pg-3fs0 pg-3fc0 pg-3sc0 pg-3ls0 pg-3ws0">
          <p> </p>
          <p></p>
          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x1 pg-4h2 pg-4y2 pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p> </p>
          </div>
          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x2 pg-4h2 pg-4y3 pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p>They pulled up in front of a small but adorable little house in a quiet New Jersey neighborhood. Jack could feel his pulse quicken at the thought of knocking on the door and having it open to reveal … her. He could tell she was home. The lights were on inside the house in the room that he knew to be her bedroom. It was late, but she was still awake.</p>
          </div>
          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x1 pg-4h2 pg-4y6 pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p> </p>
          </div>
          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x2 pg-4h2 pg-4y7 pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p>All of this had been going through Jack’s head as they stood silently at her door. Mac looked at him a little amused. “Aren’t you going to knock? You look a little nervous Jack. This isn’t another French model situation is it? Should I be worried about her throwing something at us when she opens the door?”</p>
          </div>
          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x1 pg-4h2 pg-4ya pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p> </p>
          </div>
          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x2 pg-4h2 pg-4yb pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p>Mac was expecting a little pushback or embarrassment to his playful jab at his best friend, but he was surprised to see the serious look in Jack’s expressive brown eyes. “Nah, man. Not this girl.”</p>
          </div>
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            <p> </p>
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            <p>Cleary whoever this girl was, she meant a lot to Jack. It left Mac wondering why he had never confided in him about her before.</p>
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          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x1 pg-4h2 pg-4yf pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p> </p>
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          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x2 pg-4h2 pg-4y10 pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p>Jack slowly raised his hand and rapped three times on her front door. Sounds of a dog barking immediately echoed from inside. It probably only took her about 45 seconds to answer the door, but to Jack it felt like hours. When the door finally swung open, it took his breath away. She looked even more beautiful than he remembered. Even with her hair pulled back in a messy bun and dressed in her comfy sweats… every other woman he had ever met paled in comparison to her. He knew the moment she realized it was him at the door because he could almost feel her become overly aware of how she looked. If she only knew what he saw when he was looking at her.</p>
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          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x1 pg-4h2 pg-4y17 pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p> </p>
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          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x2 pg-4h2 pg-4y18 pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p>A surprised little whisper left her lips. “Jack…?”</p>
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          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x2 pg-4h2 pg-4y18 pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p> </p>
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          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x2 pg-4h2 pg-4y19 pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p>He smiled instantly at hearing her say his name. He had missed the way that made him feel. Jack locked eyes with her to reassure her that he was actually standing at her door in the middle of the night. Her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her.</p>
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          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x1 pg-4h2 pg-4y1b pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p> </p>
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          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x2 pg-4h2 pg-4y1c pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p>Softly, and with every ounce of affection he had, he greeted her, “Hi, Em…”</p>
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          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x2 pg-4h2 pg-4y1d pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p> </p>
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          <div class="pg-4m0 pg-4x2 pg-4h2 pg-4y1e pg-4ff1 pg-4fs0 pg-4fc0 pg-4sc0 pg-4ls0 pg-4ws0">
            <p> </p>
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<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>            The silence was slowly killing Jack. He and Mac were still standing in the cold on Emel’s front porch waiting to see if they would be invited in or asked to get the hell out. He couldn’t read her expression. She looked on the verge of tears, but he didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. Maybe he shouldn’t have come back here. Maybe it was unfair. Maybe it was too much.</p><p>            Just before he opened his mouth to speak again, Emel threw her arms around his neck and pressed their bodies together. The peace that washed over him in that moment was palpable. His body had never and would never forget just how perfectly they fit together. And good Lord, the way she smells! Jack buried his nose into the crease of her neck and inhaled that warm, familiar sent. His soul had silently been searching for something he didn’t even know he needed, and now he was content. He could have went on holding her like that forever. He didn’t notice the cold anymore, and his throbbing ankle was barley even an annoyance. Why had he stayed away so long? It shouldn’t have taken an emergency to bring them back into each other’s orbit.</p><p>            Oh God, the emergency! Mac! The nostalgic reunion had dulled all of Jack’s other senses that he had become unaware of his skinny blond friend shivering behind him. Reluctantly he broke their embrace and turned slightly to include Mac in the situation.</p><p>            Emel had been so focused, and quite frankly shocked, at seeing Jack at her front door that she didn’t register the second man. Her eyes took him in and quickly noticed how boyishly handsome he was, but it didn’t take long for her to see that something was clearly wrong. His face was pale with a thin layer of sweat covering his forehead despite the rigid temperatures. And he seemed to be using her handrail to support the majority of his body weight.</p><p>            Alarm bells started to go off in her head. What was happening? Were they in danger right now? Was Jack hurt too?! She snapped her eyes back to Jack and instinctively reached out for him again, checking to make sure he was all in one piece. “Jack, what’s going on? Are you hurt?”</p><p>            Jack opened his mouth to tell her he was just fine, but Mac snitched on him. “Yes, he nee..”</p><p>            Jack cut him off as soon as possible before Emel’s eyes got any wider with concern. “Don’t pay any attention to him, he’s delirious. But darlin’, do you think we could come inside? It has been one hell of a day and my buddy could use a little help.”</p><p>            Emel pushed the door behind her wide open. “Of course. Whatever you need.”</p><p>            Jack and Emel both wrapped an arm around Mac to help get him to the couch. Jack was laser focused on Mac again after he noticed how weak he was getting. “Hey Em, do you think you could ring up the doc and see if she’d make a house call? Hospitals are kinda a no-fly zone for us right now.”</p><p>            Anxiety was threatening to snuff her out. Emel knew that trying to explain this to Sawyer was going to be harder than Jack made it out to be. “Jack, I don’t know… Sawyer likes to play by the book. She’s going to want us to bring him in. Plus, she hasn’t been this kind of doctor for a long time.”</p><p>            Jack was confused. “What do you mean ‘this kind of doctor’? The last time I saw her she was pulling buckshot from my butt cheek.”</p><p>            Emel giggled at the image of that memory. “I mean she doesn’t deal with patients anymore. She works mostly with toxins and antidotes now. She’s always in a lab. This is going to be a hard sell.”</p><p>            Emel’s explanation had caught Mac’s attention. “Wait, Dr. Sawyer Price? As in military funded, helped counteract a major chemical weapon and won a lot of awards? That Dr. Price?”</p><p>            Jack rolled his eyes. “Yes Mac, that Dr. Price. Can you nerd out later, please?” He directed his next question to Emel. “Do you think we could take this party to her? We could try to sneak in the back entrance at the hospital so no one would have to know we were there.”</p><p>            Emel shook her head. “No, her lab isn’t on site at the hospital anymore. After the military got involved with her work, they built her a private facility. It has around the clock security. We can’t just walk right in.”</p><p>            Jack flashed a smile of pure confidence. “You just leave that part to me, sweetheart. All you need to do is lead the way.” He looked back at Mac and checked in. “You okay to wait a little while longer, hoss? Cause if not, I will drive you to the hospital myself. I don’t care how risky it is…”</p><p>            Mac waved him off and started to stand. He was a little wobblily, but he made it to his feet. “I’m good. I want to meet Dr. Price.”</p><p>            Jack looked triumphant. “I guess that settles it!” He turned to Emel with that cocky smile again and declared, “I’m driving.”</p><p>            They were making good time as Jack sped down the empty road that led to Dr. Price’s facility. He didn’t like how pale Mac looked from his rear-view mirror. Every time he glanced back, he felt the urge to step on the gas a little harder. “How you doing back there Mac? Still with me?”</p><p>            Mac’s blue eyes opened to meet with Jack’s in the mirror. “I’m fine, Jack. Just keep your eyes on the road. The last thing we need right now is to smack into a tree.”</p><p>            Emel shook her head and laughed at their banter. They were like an old married couple. She couldn’t help but to imagine what it would be like. To be loved by someone who could love the way Jack Dalton loved. To be cared for so much that it turned into a fight. She knew she would bicker with him for the rest of her life if it was an option.</p><p>            They rounded a final turn to reveal a massive fenced in building. There was a guard gate to gain entrance to the grounds. With the amount of lights around it seemed like this place would have its own power grid. The entire front wall of the building was made up of glass windows that allowed you to see right in to the pristine, sterile looking environment.</p><p>            Jack let out an appreciative whistle. “Dang… this place is bigger than the great state of Texas.”</p><p>            Mac too was impressed. “This is state of the art. I would love to get my hands on some of their equipment or even sneak a glimpse of one of their projects.”</p><p>            While the guys were busy admiring the view, Emel was making some observations of her own. She had been here enough times to visit Sawyer that she knew something felt off. It was too still. Too quiet. The biggest red flag was the front gate. “You guys, is that guard stand empty?”</p><p>            Jack’s Spidey senses were tingling now. “I don’t like this… A place like this should be crawling with security. We haven’t seen hide nor hair of them since we pulled in. I really don’t like this.”</p><p>            “Yeah, something definitely does not feel right.” Mac agreed.</p><p>            Jack whipped his head around in alarm. “You were talking about the building, right? You aren’t bleeding out back there are you? I should have just taken you to the hospital!”</p><p>            Mac raised his voice to break through Jack’s panic. “JACK! Dude, relax. I’m fine. I was talking about how eerily quiet this place is. There is no way a place with military backing wouldn’t have extra security. They might not have a military presence, but they would have at least hired a private firm.”</p><p>            “What do we do now?” Emel asked with uncertainty.</p><p>            Mac leaned forward to open his car door. “Let’s do a perimeter sweep before we just walk right through the front door. A place like this probably went to extreme measures to keep people from breaking in.”</p><p>            Before Mac even had a chance to pull back on his handle, he heard the lock engage. Jack… “Sit your scrawny behind back in that seat. WE won’t be doing anything. I will. You can stay here with Em and try not to die while I’m gone.”</p><p>            Mac was shocked. Although, he didn’t know why. This was a classic Jack Dalton overprotective parent move. “Jack, did you seriously just lock me in here?!”</p><p>            Jack seemed proud of himself. “Darn right I did. I put the child locks on too. Don’t even think about taking apart this car and sneaking out. I’ll be back in two shakes.” He winked at Mac before turning to Emel. “Em, I want you to keep an eye on him. He’s a tricky one sometimes.”</p><p>            Very carefully, Jack handed her his backup weapon. “I want you to take this. I know you know how to use it. Just like I taught you, remember?” She nodded her head. “Okay, good. I want you to keep these doors locked. Don’t open them for anyone but me. Not even if the Doc comes out. You feel me?” Emel nodded silently again. “Good. Just hold tight. I’ll be back in a second.”</p><p>He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead before he made his exit. She watched his figure running further and further away from the car until she couldn’t see him anymore. Without his constant but adorable chatter, the silence was deafening. She was suddenly very aware that she was alone with a man she had never met before tonight. A man who was clearly in worse shape than he was letting on. Even though they had only known each other for a couple hours, she felt oddly at ease around him. Something in his eyes made her trust him. Maybe it was because of how much Jack loved him. Or because he reminded her of someone else she loved very much. Or maybe it was because he was such a terrible liar. Whatever it was, he was disarming. She liked him. That’s why it was so easy to open up when he started asking her questions.</p><p>            “So, how long have you known Jack?” Mac promised himself he would mind his own business, but the curiosity got the better of him.</p><p>            She stopped to reflect on that for a moment. Jack was the kind of man that you chose your words carefully about. The words used to describe everyone else weren’t special enough. “Seems like my whole life. He’s family to me.”</p><p>She could tell by the look in Mac’s eyes that he was genuinely interested and wanted to understand something that obviously held a large part in his partner’s heart. A part that Jack had chosen not to share with him.</p><p>So, she went on… “Jack was my older brother’s best friend when we were growing up in Texas. They did everything together. If Michael was doing something stupid, Jack was standing right alongside him.”</p><p>Mac grinned. “That sounds familiar.”</p><p>She returned his smile. “Yeah, he has a habit of being all in. When Michael told him he was going to join the army Jack didn’t even pause. He told him ‘Sign me up, brother. We live together and we die together.’ That’s just who he is at his core.”</p><p>Mac was all too aware of Jack’s proclivity for running into fires without a second thought. “And when did he fall in love with you?” He watched as her face blushed with affection but then quickly fell into grief. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep. It is none of my business.”</p><p>Emel reassured him. “No, it’s okay. It’s just a complicated story. I was always in love with him. Ever since we were kids and he taught me how to ride a horse. Well, he thought he did anyway. I already knew how but I just liked spending time with him. We were always close, but I don’t think he started seeing me that way until after I finished college. I was always just a kid to him, but I guess that was when I did my growing up. When he and Michael got back from their first tour over seas things shifted. I was in my mid 20s, so he said he felt like less of a pervert for thinking I was cute. It took a little while for my brother to get used to the idea of us together but eventually he saw it too. Michael told me once that he knew we were inevitable and that he was waiting for Jack to man up and settle down for good. He told me to be patient because guys like him and Jack had a lot of stupid stuff to get out of their systems before they could figure out what everyone else already knew.”</p><p>Mac had to wonder how they went from then to now. “So, what happened? Jack still getting all the stupid out of his system?”</p><p>She laughed at his attempt to lighten to mood. “While I’m sure he still has plenty of stupid to spare… that’s not what happened. After their last deployment, Jack got recruited to join the CIA and he took Michael with him. At first, I was relieved that they wouldn’t be deployed anymore but it didn’t take long to realize they were in the same amount of danger with the CIA. We were a happy family for years, but then their assignments started getting more entangled. Lots of undercover work. They would be gone for weeks at a time. One night Jack came home and my brother wasn’t with him. Something had gone wrong with their mission. Michael’s cover was blown and left him completely exposed while they were under. Jack wasn’t with him when it went down. If he was, he would be dead too. Jack found him beaten within an inch of his life. They had left him there to die like a pile of trash. Jack was never the same after that. I could feel him pulling away. He was trying to tell me goodbye without actually having to say it. He reenlisted with the army but before he left, he ended up telling me that my brother asked him to let me go. To keep me safe. He didn’t want this life for me. I didn’t get a say.”</p><p>Silence fell between them in the car as Mac chewed over everything she had confided in him. Anything he had to offer her wouldn’t be enough. “I’m sorry… and I understand. I’ve lost people I love too. It’s… not easy.”</p><p>Mac felt like an idiot. Is that really the best he could do? Emel didn’t seem to mind though. She smiled at him sweetly. “You remind me of him, you know? My brother… It makes sense. The way he cares for you. It’s kind of comforting. How long have you two known each other?”</p><p>Mac huffed and counted time in his head. “It’s been years. He was my overwatch in our EOD unit after he rejoined the army. We’ve been together ever since.”</p><p>It hit them both in that moment… Mac had come into Jack’s life just when he needed him. Not as a replacement for Michael, but as a way for his brother, his best friend to live on in his life.</p><p>Emel took in Mac’s reflective look and knew Jack meant just as much to him as he did to her. It made her feel better to know there was someone out there watching out for him. Someone who knew how special Jack Dalton really was.</p><p>The longer she looked at him, the more she noticed that he did not look well. She was just about to ask him if he was okay when a rapping at her window made her jump out of her skin. It was Jack.</p><p>She unlocked the door so he could climb in. His presence instantly lifted her heart. Mac seemed a little more at ease too. “I hope y’all weren’t talkin’ about yours truly while I was away.”</p><p>Emel looked back at Mac for her cue on how to respond. She laughed when she saw him roll his eyes and chastise his partner. “Yes, Jack. Of course, because you are the center of my universe.”</p><p>Jack gave him a whatever look and reported his findings. “There is not one single security detail around this entire place, but there are still a bunch of cars in the parking lot. Something fishy is going on here for sure.”</p><p>“What’s the plan, Jack? We’ll follow your lead.” Mac was too tired to contribute much on his own.</p><p>Jack eyed him suspiciously. “Oh, good Lord. You must be dying. We really gotta get you to the Doc so you can start bossing me around again.”</p><p>Jack went around to the back door and pulled Mac from the car. He was unsteady but he could still walk. Emel and Mac followed close behind him as they made their way towards the front gate. They stopped short when they heard Emel scream.</p><p>“Oh my God!” She yelped, pointing to something inside the gate booth.</p><p>Jack instinctively tucked her behind his body so that he was between her and whatever they were about to see.</p><p>Mac poked his head around so that he could see what was causing the distressing look on Jack’s face. The guard was laying in a heap on the floor. There wasn’t any clear sign on injury until Mac reached down to check for a pulse. There was blood coming from his eyes and nose. And on the side of his neck was a puncture wound with ascending black streaks. Mac straightened back up and answered the question they had all been wondering. “He was poisoned. Looks like some sort of injection.”</p><p>“He’s dead?” Emel asked. She was still holding out some hope that maybe he was just unconscious.</p><p>Mac nodded his head.</p><p>“Oh God, Jack! We have to find Sawyer! What if something happened to her??!!” The thought of finding her friend in the same condition that they found the guard was too much for her to imagine. It took everything in her not to break down into tears. There wasn’t time for that, and it wouldn’t be helping anyone.</p><p>Jack braced both of her shoulders with his strong hands. “Hunny, I promise, we are going to find her. Everything is going to be okay.”</p><p>He pulled her in for a tight hug and made eye contact with Mac over her head. They exchanged worried looks and made a silent agreement. It was time to focus. This was no longer an attempt to get Mac stitched up. They had stumbled into a new mission. It was time to call in the cavalry.</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>            Emel’s head was spinning. What had they gotten themselves into here? She had never seen anything like what she had just seen. That man was bleeding from his eyeballs. And those black streaks… it looked terrifying. The only reason she hadn’t fallen apart already was because Jack seemed so calm and capable. It didn’t seem to phase him at all. Either of them actually. Mac was equally in his element even though he could barely hold himself upright anymore. Their whole calm in the storm vibe was making her feel safe. All she had to do was stick close to them and do what they said.</p><p>            Right now, she was watching them closely, trying to follow along with their conversation. Their relationship dynamic was complex, and obviously went deep. From what she could tell they weren’t even speaking in complete sentences, just their own shorthand created by years of experiences and trust. She was well aware that this wasn’t an appropriate time for a reaction like this, but seeing Jack take charge was so attractive. And the way he moved… God, she had missed the way he moves. Every motion was made with purpose and strength but was also somehow so fluid and graceful. He was effortlessly beautiful. His soulful eyes. His rugged, scruffy jawline. And his strong, irresistible neck that led down to toned, broad shoulders. She could still remember the feeling of her palms sliding up his neck to entwine her fingers in the back of his hair before pulling him in for a kiss…</p><p>            Her thoughts had gotten away from her. She was so in her daydream that she hadn’t even noticed Jack and Mac’s attention was now focused solely on her. The sound of Jack’s whistle pulled her out of it. “Em… Yoohoo! Are you even listening to me?”</p><p>            Embarrassment rushed through her body and colored her cheeks with a blush. Jack lived for that look and he loved knowing that he could still affect her that way after all this time. He flashed her a knowing grin. “My eyes are up here sweetheart.” He took her agitated squint as a victory. “Annnd, she’s back!” He lost his grin when she progressed from squinting eyes to an arm fold. He was bordering on thin ice. Probably not the time Jack…</p><p>            “Emel, do you have your cell phone? We need to try and contact our people.” Mac was redirecting the conversation to their current situation.</p><p>            Jack shook off a chill. “Sorry, man. Major flashback moment. Had to stop myself from telling her not to hand it over.”</p><p>            Emel reached into her pocket for the requested phone. Her face fell when she tried to turn it on. She handed it to Mac apologetically. “It’s dead. I forgot to put it on the charger when I got home from work.”</p><p>            Jack reassured her. “It’s okay. Mac will think of something.” He paused for a second when he was met with silence. “Right, Mac? You going to think of something? I really don’t like the idea of going in there without backup. Not with you at half speed, and especially not with her. If it were just me, I’d already be inside… but I’ve got a lot of precious cargo on this one.”</p><p>            Mac leaned against the guard stand to steady himself. Even he had to admit he was feeling weaker. He gestured with his thumb behind him into the booth. “Check the guard. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”</p><p>            Jack reappeared triumphantly and with an air of pride. “I found it, and I used his thumb to unlock it. I’m basically the new Riley.”</p><p>            Jack dialed the number three times, but every call was answered by a Chinese take out restaurant. “What the hell? I know that’s the number Riley programed into my cellphone.”</p><p>            Mac gestured for him to hand over the phone. Jack noticed immediately that the kid sounded out of breath when he spoke. “Riley has been rotating the numbers for the secure lines after we had our breach with Murdoc. We’ll just call Riley’s cell.” Jack gave him a skeptical look that Mac didn’t quite understand. “What? I’m sure with all the upgrades she has made to that thing, her phone is probably more secure than the Phoenix line. We should be fine.”</p><p>            Jack shook his head at Mac’s oblivious response. “No, it’s not that. I’m just surprised you know her number by heart.”</p><p>            Mac ignored his partner’s observation as he dialed the number. Emel was certain that if he weren’t already so flushed from the extra stress on his body from his injury, that he would be blushing at Jack’s statement.</p><p>            The line barely rang once before the voice of a worried woman answered their distress call. “Mac? Jack? Is that you guys?! Talk to me! What’s happening?!”</p><p>            Jack answered her immediately. “Hey Ri, it’s me hunny. It’s okay. We’re okay. It sure is good to hear your voice though.”</p><p>            The sound of his voice eased her concern. “What happened? You didn’t make your exfil and I couldn’t reach you. Are you sure you’re okay? Where’s Mac?”</p><p>            “Mac’s here. We’re okay but we need some help. Are you with Matty and the rest of the team?” Jack cut straight to the point. If they wanted a chance of saving the doc, they needed to hurry.</p><p>            She replied, “Yeah, she’s here. We’re all here.”</p><p>            Matty’s investigative voice chimed in. “Dalton, I hope you have a good reason for missing that exfil, and for why it has taken so long for you to check in.”</p><p>            “I sure do, boss lady. We ended up hoofing it through the woods to meet the exfil team, but dodging bullets tends to slow you down. Plus, I sprained my ankle jumping out a window after Mac.” Jack retorted.</p><p>            “And you are just now checking in because…?” She sounded mad but Jack knew she was only acting that way because they had scared her.</p><p>            “I was getting to that part, Matty. Hold your horses.” He knew her impatience wasn’t entirely about him, but it really had been a long day.</p><p>            “Dalton…” her voice warned.</p><p>            Jack heeded her warning. “Okay, okay… Well, per usual, Mac broke our phones so checking in wasn’t as easy as you’re making it out to be. Mac got tuned up pretty good and I didn’t want to wait for another exfil team. I prioritized. We were on our way to get him looked at when we ran into another minor snag. And that brings us back to this phone call. We’re all caught up now. Can we get back to business please, Matilda?”</p><p>            It was Riley’s turn to scold him. “We are not all caught up Jack! You said everything was fine. What happened to Mac? Is he okay?!”</p><p>            Mac finally spoke up and calmed Riley instantly. “I’m okay Riles. I just need patched up and then I’ll be good to go. No big deal. That’s honestly the least of our problems right now.”</p><p>            Riley could tell from the sound of his voice alone that something wasn’t right. Not to mention that Jack was being evasive about it to begin with. Whatever it was, she knew they weren’t going to tell her. They didn’t want her to worry, which made her worry even more. She would just have to be content with knowing they were still alive. “I’m triangulating your position right now, Mac. We can have a new exfil team out to you in a few hours.”</p><p>            Jack was getting frustrated now. They were losing time they didn’t have. “Ri, you aren’t hearing us. We have a bigger problem. We need you guys to send a full tac team to our location as soon as possible.”</p><p>            Matty took back control. “What’s the situation, Jack?”</p><p>            Jack was happy to be back on track. “As I was saying… we were on our way to see someone about getting Mac patched up but when we got here, we found the place a total dead zone. So far, we have already found one dead security guard. And he’s not just dead, he’s super dead.”</p><p>            “Mac, can you translate please?” Matty requested.</p><p>            “Jack has a contact in Jersey who knows a doctor who can help up us. When we showed up at her lab, someone had already beat us here. We don’t know anything about the assailants other than the fact that they aren’t using traditional methods to take out their targets. The guard at the gate was poisoned with something. His eyes, ears and nose were all expelling blood, and the injection site had black lines ascending towards the heart. Whatever they used, it’s sophisticated.” Mac did his best to explain before Jack chimed in again.</p><p>            “Yeah, Matty. And we don’t have eyes on the inside of this place. We need to get in there, but I don’t like the odds of going in there blind with no backup. Mac’s hurt and I’m not putting Em in that kind of danger.” Jack didn’t realize until it was too late that he hadn’t mentioned Em yet.</p><p>            Matty recognized the name. “Wait… Em? As in THE Em? Jack, why do you have a civilian with you?”</p><p>            Emel liked the sound of that. THE Em. He hadn’t forgotten her. She spoke for the first time. “Sawyer, the doctor, she’s my friend. I was his contact. I came along to get them through the door. Please, m’am, my friend is in trouble.”</p><p>            Jack stared at her in awe. She always could handle herself.</p><p>            Matty already had something in motion. “I already have Bozer assembling a team. They will be in the air and on the ground to your location within 4 hours. Stand down until they reach you. Understood?”</p><p>            Emel and Jack both looked at Mac with concern in their eyes. Did he have 4 hours? Did Sawyer? What choice did they have? All three answered in unison. “Understood.”</p><p>            “Okay, good.” Matty replied.</p><p>            Riley was busy trying to get them eyes on the inside. “I was able to gain access to some of the cameras in the building. It looks like there was surveillance at all the entrances as well as a guard. But…”</p><p>            “But what, Riles?” Mac asked.</p><p>            She went on. “But they are all dead. And I’ve seen at least six more dead guards deeper in the building at clearance level checkpoints. The last checkpoint is where the cameras end.”</p><p>            Jack was frustrated. “So, we can’t get eyes on the bad guys or the doc? There has to be cameras in those labs, Riley. Look again.”</p><p>            “I have looked, Jack. Three times. If there are cameras in there, they aren’t on any server I can detect. I’m sorry, but I don’t think we are going to be able to see what’s going on past the final check point.” Riley tried to reign in the emotion in her voice. She absolutely hated not being there with them for this. She felt helpless.</p><p>            Jack felt a little guilty. “I know Ri, I know. I didn’t mean to snap at ya. I just really don’t like this.”</p><p>            “None of us like this, Jack. But you need to keep it together. At least until the tac team gets there. You have a civilian to look after. Remember that.” Matty’s words snapped Jack back into focus.</p><p>            Matty gave them one last order before hanging up the line. “You three get somewhere out of sight to wait for your team. Rest for a while and regroup. You are going to need to be ready to hit the ground running. In the meantime, I will contact some other agencies to see if they’ve heard anything going down in your neck of the woods. We’ll check in soon.” She was wrapping things up, but a final thought gave her pause. “And Jack… under no circumstances are you to enter that building alone.”</p><p>            He rolled his eyes because he knew she couldn’t see him, but somehow, he guessed she probably still knew. “I got it, Matty. Don’t go in alone.”</p><p>            Matty really should have known by now that semantics were important with this team.</p><p>            Now that they were alone again Jack decided to take Matty’s advice and rest for a minute. His leg was killing him. “Hey Em, you wouldn’t happen to have some pain killers in that purse of yours, would you?”</p><p>            “I have some Aspirin. Is that okay?” She knew he really had to be hurting if he was asking for medication. He had always hated taking pills, even when they were kids. “What about you Mac? Would you like one to help with the pain?”</p><p>            He shook his head with sheer exhaustion. “I can’t. It thins your blood.”</p><p>            Right. She felt like an idiot for even asking. She turned back to Jack to express something that had been bothering her. “Jack, do you think Sawyer will be okay that long without help? Can we really just sit out here and do nothing?”</p><p>            His eyes were full of understanding. “Em, I know you’re worried but it’s just too dangerous. There are too many unknowns. We don’t know who these people are or what they want. We don’t even know how many of them are in there. I won’t put you in that much danger. I won’t.”</p><p>            She agreed with him long enough to disarm him. Logically, what he was saying made sense. The risks were too high. He was protecting her, protecting Mac, and following his orders. But what about Sawyer? Who was going to protect her? That was her best friend. If it were Mac in there, Jack would already be inside. No question about it.</p><p>            She knew a safe way in. She even had a way past the locked door at the security checkpoint that led into the labs. Sawyer had issued her a keycard of her own. It was for emergencies only. If anything qualified as an emergency, this was definitely it. She had no clue what she would do once she made it inside, but she had to try.</p><p>            The keycard was locked in the glove compartment inside her car. All she had to do was get it and then find a way to escape Jack’s sight. He was going to be angry. So angry. But she didn’t see how she had any other choice. If she made it out alive, he could yell at her later. If not… well then, she wouldn’t have to worry about it.</p><p>            Emel stood from her spot next to Jack on the ground. He had been resting with his eyes closed but they shot open the moment he sensed her movement. “Emel, what are you doing?”</p><p>            She hated lying to him. “I have a first aid kit in my car. I thought maybe we could redress Mac’s cut. If we can’t get him stitched up, we can at least keep it clean.”</p><p>            He seemed to believe her words. She watched him relax back against the tree he was resting on. If she was going to do this, she had to be quick about it. He would come looking once she had been gone too long. It was hard to predict what that amount of time would be. He was tired so he might not notice the time passing. But on the other hand, he was crazy overprotective and paranoid. She could only have about 60 seconds if he got suspicious.</p><p>            She made it to the car with flying colors. The security badge was right where she expected it to be. Sawyer had a private entrance around the side of the building that led directly into an apartment she used when she was working late. None of the other workers knew it was there and there was no guard assigned to that door. Even if the intruders researched the building before they broke in, they wouldn’t have seen it.  If she was really lucky, Sawyer would have a phone in there. She never liked to take it into the lab with her because it was too big of a distraction.</p><p>            Emel eased her way towards the building and hugged the side of the wall as close as she could. If she was quiet enough and made herself small enough, she might have a chance of getting in undetected.</p><p>            She could see the door she needed up ahead. Almost there, just keep going. Eyes straight ahead, don’t look back. Don’t look back. Don’t look baAAack!! Ahh!</p><p>            While she was focusing on not looking back, she should have been looking down. Her feet had found some unequal footing and sent her face first into the ground. When she saw what made her fall, she had to clasp a hand over her own mouth to keep from screaming. It was a body. One of the security guards. His eyes were just like the other man’s had been. They were still open, and it felt like he was staring right at her warning her not to keep going. This was the precipice. She could get up and go through that door to find her friend, or she could turn around and go back to Jack.  </p><p>            The gunshot that vibrated through the walls was her deciding factor. Sawyer was in trouble. She had to keep going.</p><hr/><p> </p><p>            Mac had been trying to reserve his strength so he could be ready to go when it really counted. It may not have alerted him if he weren’t trying to keep himself from falling asleep, but something was making him uneasy. It was too quiet. Jack wasn’t talking. The last time he remembered him speaking was when Emel wanted to go to the car for the first aid kit. That had to have been at least 15 minutes ago.</p><p>            He opened his eyes to find Jack resting against the same tree Emel had left him at. “Jack…” No response. “Jack!”</p><p>            Jack’s eyes shot open in panic. “What, what’s wrong? Are you okay Mac?”</p><p>            Mac felt a little bad for startling him. Jack was finally sitting down, which is what he needed, but Mac had a feeling that they were about to have a more pressing issue. “I’m fine. I’m fine. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Jack took a deep steadying breath. “When did Emel go to get that first aid kit? Shouldn’t she be back by now?”</p><p>            Jack rubbed his tired eyes open long enough to read the time on his watch. A jolt of fear surged through his body. He was wide awake now. Mac was right. It had been too long. She should be back by now. He jumped up from the ground but hissed in pain as soon as he put weight down on his ankle. He felt stiff. He had been sitting still too long. He never should have stopped moving. He should have known something would go left on them.</p><p>            As he found his balance and breathed through the pain he turned to look down at Mac. “I’m going to go check on her. I’ll be right back.”</p><p>            When he reached the car, he found it with the door wide open. He drew his gun and did a careful assessment. She wasn’t there but somebody had been. Taking a closer look, he saw that the glove compartment was open. Someone was looking for something. He was pretty sure the glove compartment was locked before, and the rest of the car looked untouched. In fact, the first aid kit that Emel had come in search of was still sitting on the backseat. Oh no… What did she do? Tell me she didn’t…</p><p>            Jack could feel the panic start to rise in his chest. Why would she do this? He told her they had to wait. It was too dangerous. He was really clear about that! She was so damn stubborn sometimes. It should have been an immediate red flag to him when she told him she didn’t like the idea of them sitting on the side lines while her friend was in trouble. This is exactly the type of thing he knew her to be capable of doing. How could he have let her out of his sight?! If anything happens to her…</p><p>            He couldn’t breathe. Everything was starting to spin. Get it together Dalton! She needs you now. She needed you before too, but you weren’t listening. Just get back to Mac and make a plan. He can help. The kid always knows what to do.</p><p>            Jack made his way back to where he left Mac as fast as his ankle would allow. “She’s gone!”</p><p>            “What do you mean, she’s gone?” Mac asked nervously.</p><p>            Jack was losing it. “I mean she’s not there! The car door was wide open. Someone took something from the glove box but there were no signs of a struggle. It had to be her. God, Mac… what if she went in that building? I wouldn’t help save her friend, so she felt like she had to do it herself.”</p><p>            Mac tried to reassure his friend. “You made the right call Jack. We have no idea what is waiting for us in there. You were following orders.”</p><p>            Jack let out a frustrated growl. The volume and force of his words were a lot more than he meant to inflict on Mac. “SINCE WHEN HAS THAT EVER BEEN SOMETHING THAT STOOD IN MY WAY!” He saw Mac jump a little and immediately felt bad. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Mac. It’s not your fault. I’m just freaking out. She’s out there somewhere all alone. What if she’s hurt or God forbid…”</p><p>            Mac didn’t even hesitate. He pulled himself up from the ground and tried to minimize his pain. Jack didn’t need to be worrying about that right now too. “Don’t let yourself go there Jack. She’s going to be okay because we’re going to go get her.”</p><p>            Jack let out a manic, defeated huff of laughter. “Matty specifically said we couldn’t go in there alone.”</p><p>            Mac shrugged sheepishly. “Actually, Matty said YOU couldn’t go in there alone. She didn’t say anything about us. And if I’m with you, you aren’t alone. As soon as we find Emel she won’t be alone either. Besides, like you said, since when have orders ever stopped you before?”</p><p>            In that moment, Jack didn’t think he could have loved this dude anymore. If he didn’t think it would hurt him right now, he would have hugged him.</p><p>            Their bromance moment was interrupted by the sound of their borrowed cell phone ringing. It was Riley.</p><p>            “Riley?” Jack asked just to be sure it wasn’t Matty.</p><p>            Riley’s urgent voice answered. “Guys, we have a problem. Jack, I think one of the security cameras just picked up your friend sneaking down the hall towards the security door for the lab. It looks like she had a keycard because she has just buzzed herself through every door.”</p><p>It clicked in Jack’s head. That must have been what she was looking for in the car. Riley’s next sentence pulled him back into focus. “I think she’s in trouble. They have lookouts making rounds. She’s stuck. She’s well-hidden but eventually…</p><p>Jack didn’t want to think about that loaded eventually. That wasn’t going to happen. Not today. Not on his watch. “Ri, I need you to do me a favor.”</p><p>She knew what he needed before the words ever left his mouth. “Don’t tell Matty?”</p><p>He was swelling with affection for these two right now. They had his back. Always. “You know me well, kiddo. Thanks for the heads up.”</p><p>“You’re welcome.” She paused for a moment. “Jack… you should hurry.”</p><p> </p><hr/><p>          </p><p>            Emel was starting to think this was the worst idea she had ever had. What made her think she was capable of pulling something like this off? She wasn’t a hero. This wasn’t the kind of thing she did on the day to day. Jack was right, she should have just waited and let him take care of it. He was so much better at this kind of stuff.</p><p>            She was so close to making it to the final door that stood between her and her friend. She could see it from her hiding place, but she was frozen in fear. She had already seen armed men make a round once. What if she moved and they came back? She took a deep breath and thought of Jack. What would he do? She knew the answer. He was a no holds barred kind of guy. If she thought about it too much longer, she would never move. It had to be now.</p><p>            Quietly, she opened the door of the room she had been hiding in and carefully closed it again behind her. The hallway looked clear from all directions. Now or never. There was only one side hallway between her and the door. As long as she could make it past there, she would be home free. The closer she got the more her senses were telling her to stop. Someone was waiting around the corner. She could feel it in her bones. Why wasn’t she stopping? Her feet kept propelling her forward. This must have been what all those idiots in horror movies experienced. If she ever got the chance to watch another horror movie after this, she would remind herself not to judge them.</p><p>            Jack always told her to listen to her gut. He said if your gut was giving you a feeling, it was usually right. Why was she such a bad listener?</p><p>            As she stepped past the edge of the corner and into the opening of the hall, she felt all of her senses get bum rushed. It all happened so fast. Two arms reached around her and yanked her backwards down the hallway. One hand was pinned firmly over her mouth to keep her from screaming, and the other was holding her still against someone’s body.</p><p>            She thought to herself. “This is it. This is the moment I’m going to die.” Tears were streaming down her cheeks and over the fingertips of the man restraining her. Almost all the fight had left her body. She was seconds away from giving up when a familiar voice instructed her to calm down. Jack. “Em, It’s me. It’s me baby, relax.”</p><p>            Jack could feel her body sink into his voluntarily. Having her this close to him right now was almost too much but not enough at the same time. Feeling her, remembering her. All he could think about was what he had almost lost tonight. What he could still lose if they didn’t get out of here safely.</p><p>            He loosened his grip slightly so she could turn in his arms. She wrapped herself around him for comfort. He could feel her heart thumping against his chest through her own. “Jack, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what else to do. It’s Sawyer. What would you have done if it were Mac? Or me? I couldn’t do nothing. Please understand.”</p><p>            He pulled her face away from his chest and wiped away her tears with his thumb. She couldn’t read his face. It wasn’t a look he had ever given her before. Very calmy, almost scary calm, he said, “We can talk about this later.” Yep, he was mad. Definitely mad. She recognized the tone. But he was also incredibly relieved. The mixture of the two was unnerving for her. The wave of guilt she had for disappointing him made her want to start crying all over again.</p><p>            She was about to apologize again when he went on. “We’ve made it this far, we might as well see this through. Let’s go get Sawyer and get the hell out of here.”</p><p>            He couldn’t have been anymore heroic if he were wearing a cape. The swoon factor was real. She was about to kiss him when Mac’s voice broke her trance. “Jack…”</p><p>            Jack sighed heavily and responded to his friend, “I know buddy. This isn’t the time for canoodling.”</p><p>            Jack didn’t turn around right away to face him, so his voice was more urgent this time. “Jack…”</p><p>            That’s when Jack heard it. The undeniable sound of someone pulling back the hammer on a gun.</p><p>            Mac was in trouble.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>            Jack’s blood was rushing through his veins. He barely had time to feel the relief of having Emel back in his sight before the fear of Mac being in danger took over. When this was all over, he was going to need to sleep for three days straight.</p><p>            Slowly, Jack turned around to assess the severity of their most recent threat. Mac was standing completely still, hands in the air with the barrel of a gun pressed to the side of his head. Jack’s fear quickly transformed into anger at the sight of his distressed partner. His body started to move before his brain even had time to explain why lunging toward the guy with the gun could be a bad idea.</p><p>            “Ah, ah, ah! Back up, cowboy.” A second man waved his gun in a warning fashion. “Take another step and she’s dead.”</p><p>            Jack’s heart fell to his stomach as he followed the gunman’s line if sight over his shoulder to Emel. His instincts were warring inside of him, pulling him so hard in opposite directions that he felt as if he was being ripped apart. Who did he protect first? Normally, he would trust Mac to handle his own, but the kid was moving a lot slower right now. And the thought of anything happening to Em made him shudder instantly. Maybe he could talk their way out of this one…? “Listen fellas, we aren’t here to stir up any trouble. Just let me grab my girl and my homie there, and we’ll get out of your hair. I’m pretty sure I’m already coming down with amnesia so I’m sure I won’t even remember any of this.”</p><p>            Deep down he knew it wouldn’t work but it was worth a try. The man with his gun to Mac’s head let out a belt of fake laughter. “Hilarious!” He dropped the forced smile and glared at Jack stoically, “Now get your hands up or your “homie” is going to get an extra hole in his head.”</p><p>            Jack complied reluctantly as the men ushered the three of them through the last security door and down another hallway. The walls in the new section of the building were made entirely of glass from floor to ceiling. It gave them a front row seat to the horror show playing out in front of them. There were several more armed guards on the other side of the glass, and they appeared to have at least four hostages. Hopefully one of them was the Doc.</p><p>            Jack’s hope was answered when Emel yelled out for her friend. “Sawyer!”</p><p>            When Emel saw Sawyer get backhanded across the face by a big dude with tats, her first instinct was to run to her. But before she made it even one step in her friend’s direction, Jack had wrapped his arms around her waist, effectively holding her back. “Jack, let me go! That’s Sawyer in there! I have to help her.”</p><p>            Her body was still fighting against his hold, but Jack wasn’t going to let her go. Not this time. “Em, calm down!” He looked expectantly over his shoulder to see a gun pointed directly at them. The chaos had their captor on high alert and the last thing they needed was for him to get an itchy trigger finger.</p><p>            His arms tightened around her, pulling her body flush against his own in an attempt to still her. His lips pressed to her ear and mouthed a pleading whisper, “Please baby… just trust me. I’m gonna get us out of this. All of us.”</p><p>            His words shot into her bloodstream like a sedative. She felt herself relax into his arms. She did trust him. She trusted him with her life. And if she could trust him to protect her, she could trust him to protect Sawyer.</p><p>            One of their escorts inserted himself into the conversation with an antagonizing tone. “Yeah, Em. Why don’t you just relax? We’re taking you exactly where you want to go.” Jack instantly clinched at hearing this low life say her name. He was the only one who called her that, this dude had no right…</p><p>            Apparently, Emel agreed. She peeled herself from Jack’s arms and squared her shoulders, looking the man dead in the eye. “Eww. Don’t call me that.”</p><p>            The man’s face went from shocked to embarrassed, and then to furious, all within a few seconds. Having his authority challenged by a tiny little girl didn’t go over well. “Fine then, bitch.”</p><p>            Mac was watching the exchange carefully. He could feel the tension flooding their space. The silence was dangerous. If Mac didn’t fill it himself, he knew Jack would say something that would most likely end with them all getting shot. “Hey man, just don’t… I really don’t feel like getting shot tonight, do you? Because that’s what is going to happen if you keep pushing my friend’s buttons like that. I can only talk him down so many times before his point of view starts making sense to me too. Now, can you please just take us inside?”</p><p>            Mac’s reprimand seemed to have the opposite effect than he was hoping for. This man did not like being challenged. Before anyone knew what was happening, the man grabbed Emel by the upper arm and started dragging her towards the glass door to the lab. Jack went to chase after them but before he could get to her, the second guard hit him square in the face with the butt of his gun.</p><p>            Everything was happening so fast. Jack wanted to defend himself, but he was overly aware of how far Em was away from him now. He shook off the pain and followed Mac through the now open door that took him back to Emel.</p><p>            The focus of everyone in the room shifted to them as one of the guards announced their presence. “Silas! We found three more in the outer corridor. They were trying to sneak in here. I think this one knows your doctor.”</p><p>            With the tight grip he had around her upper arm, the man slammed Emel harshly onto the ground. Her head made a sickening crack against the tile floor. All the air rushed from Jack’s lungs at the sound. He was finally able to breathe again as he saw her sit up, but rage blinded him when she pulled her hand away from her head to reveal a bloody palm.</p><p>            Mac didn’t have time to try and stop him this time. Jack had lunged forward and tackled the man who had hurt her. He had the guy trapped between his thighs as his fists came down over and over again to make contact the man’s face. Mac had only seen him like that once before and he knew he wasn’t going to stop until it was done. The only thing that prevented Jack from killing him was the second guard who had primarily been focused on Mac up until now. While their attention was focused on dealing with Jack, Mac was able to get down to check on Emel. The bleeding was heavy, but it didn’t appear to be anything life threatening.</p><p>            Jack was being ripped backwards off the whimpering man on the floor under him. He barely even noticed the other man’s attempts to stop his assault until something hard pounded against his ribcage and stunned him for a moment. He gasped for the breath that had been forced from his body.</p><p>            The man had succeeded in knocking Jack off his colleague, but he wasn’t even close to knocking the fight out of him. Jack was laying on his back now with the second guard’s boot pressing down firmly on his chest. The man had an air of victory on him, but he clearly didn’t know Jack. Even if this guy had him beat, which Mac knew was not the case, Jack would never give him the satisfaction of admitting it.</p><p>            The momentum was rising in Jack’s body, like a snake coiling to strike. His opponent could sense the looming danger so be leaned down and pressed his gun to the center of Jack’s forehead. With a smug smirk he asked, “What now, old man?”</p><p>            Jack huffed laughingly in annoyance. He grabbed the barrel of the gun and pushed it harder against his head. “Boy, if you put your hands on me again you better be aiming to kill because I’m about to put you and yours into the ground.”</p><p>            It wasn’t a threat. It was a promise. A fact. The man could see it in his eyes. The fear caused him to hesitate too long. Before he could stop it, Jack reached for him and snapped his arm at the elbow causing him to drop the gun. Jack was about to pick it up when a booming voice commanded the room into silene. “ENOUGH!”</p><p>            Jack looked up to see all eyes on him. Mac was on the floor next to Emel, who seemed to be begging him with her eyes to stop what he was doing and crawl over to them. He thought better of that when he realized that every gun left in that room was now fixed directly on him.</p><p>            The man who had controlled the room by just one word approached Jack nonchalantly. He wasn’t afraid at all, which made the hair on the back of Jack’s neck stand up. You should always be aware when you are no longer the predator and have become the prey.</p><p>            He was a large man with a very commanding presence. His eyes were a sharp blue and they searched every detail of a situation for information. Jack suddenly felt very exposed. The man addressed him directly. “Stand up.” Jack did as he asked and was now face to face with him. The man reached out and started to dust the dirt from Jack’s black leather jacket. When he had Jack all straightened to his liking he addressed him again. “I can see that my employee has crossed a rather obvious line with you by harming this young woman. And I suspect that was his intention all along. So, I can understand, and even forgive this outburst. But let me be clear, I won’t be as understanding a second time. Understood?”</p><p>            Jack knew to be cautious, but he also wasn’t going to back down like a scared puppy. He needed to set some boundaries and expectations. “I understand, as long as you understand that if someone so much as breathes on her, we’re going to have a problem. Am I making myself clear?”</p><p>            A calm, creepy smile stretched across the man’s face. Unlike his employee, he seemed to respect being challenged. “Crystal. Allow me to introduce myself.” He extended a hand to Jack. “Silas. Silas Goodwin. And you are?”</p><p>            Jack stared down at the man’s hand and contemplated. He really didn’t want to shake it, but he also didn’t want to upset the balance here. Something told him that refusing to shake the hand of a man like this was worse than throwing a punch. He reached out and shook to their silent agreement. “Jack Dalton.”</p><p>            Silas looked over his shoulder and nodded to a man sitting behind a laptop. Jack knew they were searching him. This guy must be like their version of a Riley. It didn’t take him long to find the information he was looking for, which was both impressive and alarming. It should not have been that easy for him to hack his way through classified Phoenix files. He gestured for his boss to come and take a look at what he had pulled up on his computer screen.</p><p>            Silas peered down at the information in front of him with eyes eager to learn. Jack could have sworn he saw concern flash across his cold features before he turned back to him with a smile. “Ah yes, Jack Dalton. This is quite an impressive service jacket. U.S. Army Delta Commando, C.I.A, and now something called The Phoenix foundation.” The man’s eyes drifted from Jack over to where Mac was sitting, still protectively crouched over Emel. “And that must make you Angus MacGyver.” His smile only grew as he read over Mac’s information. He looked like the cat who had just ate the canary. “Gentlemen, I cannot believe the stroke of good luck that has just fallen into my lap. Mr. MacGyver, if you are who I believe you to be, then my night has just brightened.”</p><p>            Mac didn’t like where this was going. “Who do you think I am?”</p><p>            Silas wore the look of satisfaction that a person only wears when they know they’ve won. He already knew the answer to the questions he was about to ask. “Well Angus, I have an old friend who used to talk about a boy with your name constantly. She was always going on about his untapped potential and how he could be the key to solving so many of the world’s problems. She never stopped reminding me how special this boy was. Her name was Gwen Hayes. Do you know her?”</p><p>            The mention of his aunt made Mac’s stomach drop. The last time he saw her, she had given her life for his. And as much as he grew to care for the woman, it made him even more nervous that this man in front of him was running in the same sort of circles that Gwen did. And if she trusted him well enough to divulge information about Mac… well, then this Silas guy must be a significant player. He may not have been Codex, but Mac had a feeling that there were similar radicalized tendencies linking Silas to his Aunt Gwen. Mac swallowed hard and answered honestly, “She was my aunt.”</p><p>            Silas seemed taken aback for a moment. “Was? Has something happened to her?”</p><p>            Mac replied, “She died last year.”</p><p>            Silas responded with genuine remorse. “Oh, I see. I’m sorry to hear that. Gwen was a miraculous woman. But it brings me joy to know that she got to meet you before her time was up. She really did have high hopes for you.”</p><p>            Mac was starting to get uncomfortable with this conversation. That was not a pleasant time in his life. There was a lot of pain and a lot of change. He needed to get things back on track and moving along. “How does me being here help you?”</p><p>            “Right. Back to business. I like you already.” Silas walked over and grabbed a young woman, pulling her towards where Mac and Emel were sitting. She was beautiful in spite of the deep purple bruise that was forming on her left cheek. She had a fight about her that Mac instantly liked. Was she the problem Silas wanted him to solve? The closer she got to them the more Mac could feel Emel tense at his side. He finally felt her soft hand grip his in panic.</p><p>            Mac looked down at their clasped hands and then back up to meet her eyes. She whispered to him. “That’s Sawyer.”</p><p>            Dr. Sawyer Price. Mac had heard a lot about her and was in awe of her mind before he had even laid eyes on her. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but it wasn’t this. She was stunning in so many ways, and it only made him want to know more. Her eyes were searching over her friend desperately, checking to make sure she was okay. “Emel, are you all right? How are you even here right now?”</p><p>            Silas yanked her back to her feet when she tried to kneel next to her friend. “Angus MacGyver meet Dr. Price. You two are going to be working together this evening. Dr. Price here keeps going on and on about how what I’m asking her to do isn’t feasible for one person. And with what I know about you Mr. MacGyver, I think you will be the perfect addition to our little team.”</p><p>            Sawyer ripped her arm from Silas’ grasp. “I already told you, I won’t help you. This goes against everything I believe in.”</p><p>            Silas was quickly approaching the end of his patience where the doctor was concerned. “If you’re so moral, Dr. Price, then how can you possibly be okay with leaving this toxin without an antidote?”</p><p>            She didn’t even blink at his attempt of manipulation. If anything, Mac thought it only strengthened her resolve. “Your plan only works if both parts are complete. Yes, you could unleash whatever monstrosity you created, and a lot of people would die. But without the antidote there would be no point of this for you. I know men like you. You aren’t doing this for the death and the chaos. You’re doing this for money. And I refuse to help you inflict people with this much pain just to feed your greed.”</p><p>            Something inside Silas flipped in that moment. He was done hiding behind his carefully constructed act of politeness. “Oh, is that what it is? You refuse to help me inflict pain. Let me present this to you in a different way.” He motioned for one of his lackies. “Reese, bring me one of Dr. Price’s lab friends.”</p><p>            The man Silas referred to as Reese brought a scared lab tech to stand on the other side of Sawyer. Silas addressed her again. “Here are your options. You either use that beautiful brain of yours to give me what I need, or I kill one of your friends every time I hear the word no come out of that pretty mouth.” Sawyer stared at him deadpan and in complete silence. Maybe he was bluffing. Silas must have seen the doubt lingering in her eyes. He would have to show her. After all, he was a man of his word. “Dr. Price, I want you to know that this was completely within your power to prevent.”</p><p>            Silas gave Reese a silent order with a head nod. The trigger had already been pulled before she had a chance to protest. She screamed out in disbelief. “CARTER!”</p><p>            Jack propelled himself forward to Emel’s side when he heard the gunshot. He got there just in time to take Mac’s spot as Mac jumped up to reach Sawyer. He had seen her look of pure horror transform into fury. She was determined to put an end to Silas, even if that meant she died trying. Something inside of Mac couldn’t bare the thought of that. He had to get to her before she got to Silas.</p><p>            She was so laser focused that Mac was actually struggling against her efforts to escape his hold. Eventually, he had to lift her off the ground and swing her away from her target. The only flaw in that plan was that now Mac had become the target. She kicked and punched as hard as she could to get free from him. “Let me go! Get off of me! I said let me go!”</p><p>           She threw her elbow back one last time and he dropped her instantly. She had managed to hit him right on the throbbing wound in his side. Mac fell to his knees clutching his side, struggling to catch a breath. His vision was going white from the pain and his stomach was threatening to overturn. He didn’t know what happened after he let her go. He didn’t know if she had done what he feared. He didn’t know if she was still directing her rage at him. All he knew was pain.</p><p>           Sawyer felt the adrenaline surge through her body when she realized she was free, but she was stopped cold in her tracks when she heard Emel scream out, worry lacing her voice. “Mac! Oh my God! Sawyer, help him!”</p><p>           Sawyer’s eyes widened when she saw Mac doubled over in pain. Something was wrong. She knew she couldn’t have hit him that hard. He was only trying to help her. What had she done?! Her guilt pulled her to him on the floor and her medical instincts kicked in. His skin was warm to the touch and slick with sweat, and his breathing was picking up a rapid pace. His pulse was threatening to pound through his neck. She tried to pull his hands from his side, but he pushed her away. She needed him to calm down and slow his breath. She needed him to trust her.</p><p>           All Mac could focus on was the pain. It was searing through him like a white-hot poker. He was vaguely aware of someone calling his name, but he didn’t know who it was. Someone was trying to move his hands and expose the now freshly bleeding cut above his hip. The thought of someone touching the wound made his head spin. He knew that much pain would send him over the edge into unconsciousness. That was probably going to happen soon anyway because he was having an increasingly hard time getting a full breath. The inward and outward motion was murder to his aching side. This was hell, and there was no escaping it. Or so he thought.</p><p>           Mac felt two cool, soft hands cup his face and neck. It felt like someone was holding on to him for dear life. Someone was trying to ground him, to keep him here. The longer they held him the more things started to come into focus. He could feel each fingertip pressing into his skin. When he turned his face into the touch, he could smell the sweet scent of perfume on her wrist. And when he opened his eyes, he could see her kind eyes peering into his. Her eyes were limitless, and they had so much to say. They worried for him with an urgency. They held a genuine apology for his pain. And they had a childlike wonder to them that made him wish he could see the world from her point of view.</p><p>          The longer he looked at her, the more he started to notice about her. He could see her lips moving which gave him an overwhelming need to hear her voice. It was soft, comforting, and steady. Easy for him to latch onto. “Breathe for me. Slowly, that’s it. Good. Good. Keep trying. You’re okay.”</p><p>         Something about her general demeanor was so genuine. He instantly believed her. He could feel himself mimicking her instructed breaths. Relief washed over him as the oxygen filled his lungs. He could still feel the pain, but it hurt a little less now. “Thank you,” he whispered.</p><p>         Her eyes filled to the brim as she fought back the urge to cry. “Don’t thank me. This was my fault. I’m so sorry, Angus.”</p><p>         His answering smile confused her. “Mac. Call me Mac.”</p><p>         Mac felt he was given the ultimate reward when she responded with a light laugh. “Okay, Mac, I’m Sawyer. I need you to do me a favor. I need you to let me move your hands so I can look at your side. Do you trust me to do that?”</p><p>         Before he had a chance to answer, Silas interrupted. “As touching as this display is, Dr. Price, we don’t have time for you the play doctor with the boy genius. I’m on a bit of a deadline.”</p><p>         Her face darkened with disgust and that unmistakable fire that Mac had come to be infatuated with. “Do you want me to help you or not? If you do, then I need him. And he can’t help me if I don’t help him first. So, which is it Silas?”</p><p>         She had bested him again, and he was visibly annoyed. “Make it quick.” He turned towards Jack and Emel and gave Reese more orders. “Reese get those two up and restrained. You can set them down in those chairs next to the doctor’s workstation. I want everyone close and within eyesight. We don’t need any more surprises.”</p><p>        Sawyer turned her attention back to Mac. He had already lowered his hands from his side and was waiting anxiously for her to examine the area. Anticipating the pain was painful in and of itself. He was also nervous about what she was going to find. He couldn’t bring himself to look.</p><p>        Her deft fingers made quick work of the buttons on his shirt. She was so careful and delicate with him. If he weren’t bleeding all over her, he probably would have found it relaxing. Her face scrunched with worry when she saw the makeshift bandage that was now soaked through with blood. She warned him. “Mac, this is going to hurt.”</p><p>      Man, oh man, was she right. The bandage was stuck to parts of his skin with dried blood. No matter how gentle she was, it still felt like his skin was ripping open even wider. She knew she wasn’t going to like what she saw considering the amount of blood she was looking at, but she was not prepared for this much. It was infected. Badly. No wonder he was so hot to the touch. “Mac, oh my God. When did this happen? Do you know what cut you?”</p><p>      Mac glanced down for the first time and saw what she was seeing. Even through the blood you could tell how swollen and inflamed it looked, and there were red streaks forming along the surrounding areas of skin. “It happened this afternoon. Jack and I had to make it through a fence and one of the jagged pieces caught me. It’s infected, isn’t it?”</p><p>      She knew it wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear but she had to tell him the truth. “Yes, it’s infected. I need to clean it out before I can stitch you up. And we have to get these red streaks under control.”</p><p>      Sawyer stood up and approached Silas, leaving Mac alone on the floor. It was absolutely killing Jack not being able to be over there with Mac, but at least Sawyer had moved close enough that he could hear what was going on. “Silas, I need some supplies to get him on his feet. His wound is deep, and an infection has started to set in. I can get it myself or you could let one of my lab techs get it for me. They know what they are looking for and where everything is stored.”</p><p>      Silas agreed but with a stipulation. “Fine, but as soon as you’re finished I want you working, and I don’t want to have to fight you on this anymore. You still have two more lab technicians that I could kill for incentive.”</p><p>      She nodded silently and then made her way back to Mac. The amount of hatred that she felt for Silas right now was concerning for her. She had never in her life caught herself legitimately planning a way to murder someone until today.</p><p>      Her assistant Beth was able to find Sawyer everything she needed to help Mac. She had one last request. “Beth, I need you to stay and help me. This is going to hurt him, and I need you to keep him as steady as you possibly can. Okay?” Beth agreed hesitantly. “Okay, good. Mac, I promise I will do this this as quickly as I can, but you are going to have to bear with me. I’m not going to lie to you, this is going to hurt. All I have are a few local numbing agents.”</p><p>     Mac reached out and held her shaking hand. “I’ll be alright. I trust you.”</p><p>     Sawyer took one deep inhale of breath before starting to steady herself. First, she needed to stop the bleeding. Applying pressure to the swollen wound wasn’t going to be fun for Mac, but she couldn’t do anything else until the bleeding stopped. When she pressed down with the fresh gauze, Mac let out painful groan. He had to bite down on his fist to keep himself from screaming.</p><p>     The sound of his partner’s cries was making it unbearable for Jack to be tied down to the chair beneath him. Mac was tough, but Jack knew pain when he heard it. “What are you doing to him over there, Doc? You’re hurting him!”</p><p>      Sawyer’s stress level was already at an all time high, and Jack wasn’t helping matters. She knew he was just worried, but she snapped anyway. “Dalton, I’ve got this! He’s fine. Stop talking so I can concentrate.”</p><p>      The bleeding finally seemed to be slowing enough for her to see the extent of the damage. It should be easy enough for her to stitch, but first she had to clean it out. She looked closely for any remaining debris left inside from the fence. A tiny piece of metal was caught just inside the cut. She couldn’t leave it in there, she would have to try and remove it. Beth handed her the sterile pair of surgical tweezers. “Mac, there is a small piece of metal inside this cut. I have to try and pull it out. I need you to stay as still as you can.”</p><p>     He repeated her instructions back to her. “Stay as still as I can… got it.”</p><p>     She apologized to him before bringing the tweezers to his skin. “I’m so sorry.” His scream made her flinch. His entire abdomen was rigid under her hands. She needed to be quick about this because he wasn’t going to be able to hold still forever. Please don’t move. Please don’t move. Please don’t move.</p><p>     Some fresh blood started to spill as she pinched into his wound. She almost had it. “Dr. Price, that really hurts. I don’t mean to rush you, but please hurry.”</p><p>     His voice was thick with the pain. It fueled her determination. She couldn’t stand hurting him like this. “I got it, Mac! It’s gone. We’re almost done.”</p><p>     She poured the pitcher of warm water over his skin to irrigate the wound. Very carefully, so that she didn’t get any soap into the cut, she washed the dried blood off the surrounding skin. Now she just needed to stitch him up. “Alright, Mac… I’m going to give you another anesthetic for this last part. You’re still going to feel some pulling but it shouldn’t be excruciating.”</p><p>     His body had relaxed a little now. It made her feel better to know that he seemed to genuinely trust her to do this. She focused on his breathing as she twisted the sutures through his skin. The gentle rise and fall of his chest steadied her hands. She felt in sync with him now. She cleaned the stitches one last time before patting them dry. “I’m all finished. You still with me?”</p><p>     Mac opened his eyes and gave her a small smile. “I’m here. Thank you, Dr. Price.”</p><p>     He sat up slowly and winced. “Easy… easy… Here, take these.” She opened her hand to reveal two large pills. “They’re antibiotics. I think we treated this fast enough to not need to worry about the infection spreading out of control. I will keep a close eye on it though.”</p><p>     She handed him a bottle of water and he swallowed the pills with ease. “Oh, and Mac…?” He looked up to meet her gaze. “You can call me Sawyer.”</p><p>     Sawyer helped Mac to his feet, and they walked over to where the rest of the group was waiting. And it was just in time too because Jack was minutes away from causing another disruption. “Mac! Man, it is good to see you upright. You had me scared for a minute.”</p><p>     A familiar warmth spread through Mac’s chest. Jack always had this way of instantly making him feel cared for. “Sorry, Jack. I’m fine now, I promise. Just a little sore.”</p><p>     Jack was curious. “Let me see the aftermath.” Mac lifted his shirt gently and Jack whistled. “That is going to leave one hell of a scar.”</p><p>     Sawyer chimed in. “I’m sorry. It has been so long since I’ve actually treated a patient. I used to have a smoother touch but I’m out of practice.”</p><p>     Jack shook his head. “Don’t you even worry about that. It’ll be a sexy scar for him to impress chicks with later.”</p><p>     Mac tried to hide a bashful grin, but she saw it. The words left her mouth before she even knew what she was saying. “He won’t need the scar to be impressive.”</p><p>     Jack threw her a playful wink that sent the blood rushing to her cheeks. She was mortified. Luckily, her friend came to her rescue. “Sawyer, what’s going on here? What does he  want you to do?”</p><p>     Sawyer approached her friend and wrapped her in a hug. It was the first-time things had slowed down enough for her to be grateful for their presence. Emel squeezed her friend back with equal measure. She was just so relieved to see her alive.</p><p>     Sawyer pulled away to explain herself but Silas spoke first. “I want her to help me shape history. And if we happen to gain a little fame and fortune in the process, then so be it.” He held up a small vile of red liquid. “This is a deadly new cocktail I’ve created. I’m sure you saw the results of a concentrated dose on your way in tonight.”</p><p>     The puzzle clicked in Mac’s head. “The security guards…”</p><p>     Silas went on. “Yes, that’s right Angus. But what I have here is different. It’s much less brutish. It has a little more finesse. And in a few months, it will be widely distributed into the American food supply. You see, in small, diluted doses it takes much more time for the symptoms to manifest. Doctors won’t know what they are dealing with. Thousands of people will die, and the public will go into a frenzied panic. It will leave them desperately seeking the answers on how to save themselves and their loved ones. And that is where Dr. Price comes into play. Once they finally narrow it down to a chemical toxin, they will call in an expert in the field. She will work night and day for an antidote, never sleeping until she produces another miracle save to protect the American people. Everyone knows her name now. Everyone trusts her medical know how. No one will think twice about following her recommendations. And of course, she will need a pharmaceutical company to partner with to mass produce and distribute her cure.”</p><p>     Another part of the story came into to focus for Mac. “Goodwin Pharmaceuticals. That’s your company?”</p><p>     “Right again Mr. MacGyver. We will have a monopoly on the market and stand to bring in millions upon millions of dollars. And Dr. Price will be cemented in history forever. She could write her own ticket from then on out. Work with any facility she wanted. Access to unlimited funding. It’s really a win win for both of us.”</p><p>     Sawyer spoke up. “What about the thousands that have to die before the antidote gets introduced? Doesn’t that give you pause at all?”</p><p>     He shrugged. “Sometimes you have to crack a few eggs…”</p><p>     Goodwin’s crass response provoked Emel. “You’re a monster.”</p><p>     Her observation did nothing to deter him. “As long as I’m a rich monster I can live with the title.” He looked back to Sawyer. “I held up my end of the bargain, now it’s your turn Dr. Price.”</p><p>     She pleaded with him. “Please don’t make me do this. It’s wrong. Can’t you see it’s wrong?”</p><p>     Silas let out a disappointed sigh. “I was afraid you might say that. I really didn’t want to have to do this Dr. Price. You promised to proceed without a fight if I let you tend to Mr. MacGyver.”</p><p>     His ominous words made her skin crawl. “What didn’t you want to do?”</p><p>     The smile that crept over his cheeks could only be described as evil. Somehow his claim to taking no pleasure in whatever he was about to do didn’t quite ring true. “Your speedy work to save poor Angus inspired me to find a creative way to inspire you. Do you see this?” He held up a syringe filled with a similar content to the previous concoction. Except this one was much lighter in color. Instead of a vibrant red, it was more of a soft pink. “This darling is a less concentrated version of my original design. It won’t kill a person instantly, but it still packs quite the punch. It lands somewhere in the middle between what you saw with the guards and what will happen once people get exposed repeatedly through their junk food. Instead of surviving months, a person exposed to this would only make it roughly 18 hours without intervention. I was going to give it to your lovely assistant Beth as an incentive to hurry you along but now I’m not so sure that would properly motivate you. But her on the other hand…” He gestured his head toward Emel. “Something tells me that having her life in your hands would light a real fire under you.”</p><p>    Silas sat the syringe down on the table next to him and started taking off his jacket. He was making himself more comfortable so he could be more at ease while poisoning their friend. He wanted them to know that’s how insignificant this was to him. He gave Reese another order. “Roll up the girl’s sleeve. I’m going to inject her right arm.”</p><p>     Jack was beside himself. As soon as Reese put his hands on Emel, Jack felt himself get pushed to the brink of his sanity. He had to do something, anything to prevent this from happening. They may have bound his hands behind him, but his feet were free. He reached out with his leg and hooked his foot onto the metal leg of Emel’s chair. He pulled forcefully, yanking her chair to his side and effectively getting Reese’s grubby little hands off of her. A warning roared from deep within Jack’s chest. “Like hell you are! I thought I made myself clear before. Touch her and I’ll kill you.”</p><p>     Tears were streaming down Emel’s face and Jack was shaking with rage. Mac knew this wasn’t going to end well. He couldn’t watch his best friend get murdered in front of him. Emel was going to end up with that injection either way, and Jack would be gone. That is, unless Mac did something to stop it.</p><p>    He was quick with his actions. If he thought too long about what he needed to do, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to follow through. Silas was too distracted by Jack’s bravado that he didn’t notice Mac pick up the syringe. He was already half through injecting the needle into his own arm before Sawyer yelled out for him. “MAC, NO!”</p><p>     Jack looked at him confused until his eyes settled on the empty syringe in Mac’s hand. “Mac, what the hell?! Have you lost your damn mind?! Why would you do that?!”</p><p>     “Because, Jack! I’m not going to sit here and watch you get yourself killed. What was your plan? Take down as many as you could before they killed you? And then what? You’d be dead and they would have given Emel the shot anyway. At least this way you are both alive.”</p><p>     Jack knew part of what Mac was saying was right, but he was still furious. “And what about you?! I mean seriously!” He looked over to Emel and then back to his best friend. “You two are going to be the death of me! Running into hostage situations and injecting deadly poison into veins! A man can only take so much! I am begging you. BOTH of you. Think of me before you do these things.”</p><p>     Emel couldn’t help but feel riddled with guilt after hearing Jack’s heartfelt plea. It broke her heart to know she had caused him this much grief. If it weren’t for her, they never would have entered the building in the first place. Mac wouldn’t be hours away from a painful death, and Jack wouldn’t be faced with losing the people he loves the most in the world.</p><p>     Silas released a belting laughter and clapped his hands in appreciation. “This night just keeps on getting better.” He looked down at the watch on his wrist. “Time is a ticking, Doc. You may want to get to work if you want a chance at saving this young man.”</p><p>     He walked away and left the four of them to the chaos of what just happened. They were all staring at Mac with worry creasing their faces. The spotlight was making him uncomfortable. “Guys, I’ll be fine. Sawyer is the best at what she does. I trust her.”</p><p>     Sawyer wiped away a stray tear that had somehow escaped down her cheek. “I will do everything I can to figure this out, but I am going to need your help. I need you to be very transparent with me about how you start to feel physically. I’m worried that we may have less time than we think. Your immune system was already compromised by the infection from your wound…”</p><p>     Jack put into words what everyone was feeling. “Oh God, Mac… What did you do?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Alright guys! Things are probably going to amp up pretty quickly before I start winding these chapters up for a close. How is everyone feeling so far? Anything you'd like to see happen? Please feel free to leave comments :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mac looked from person to person only to find three sets of worried eyes staring back at him. He knew injecting himself with this toxin was going to be a risk but maybe he hadn’t considered all the implications. Even if he had, he was sure he would have made the same choice. This was the only way he could see to keep his friends safe.</p><p>            Mac took a step closer to Jack and lowered his voice as he spoke. “Everything will be fine. Riley said she would have a team out to us in a few hours. We just have to keep it together long enough for them to get here. After we get all these guys detained, we can take Dr. Price back to the Phoenix labs with us. She can monitor me in a controlled medical environment with the support of a full research and medical team. She can do this Jack. I’ve studied her work. If anyone can pull this off, it’s her.”</p><p>            Jack took a minute to digest what Mac was saying. There was absolutely nothing that would completely ease his worry until this was all over, but Mac’s logic did bring him some comfort. He turned his scrutinous gaze to Sawyer. He needed to hear her say it. “Doc, tell me you feel confident about this. Don’t get me wrong, I know you are smarter than just about everyone in this room, but I need you to be on another level today. I need you focused. Can I trust you with this?”</p><p>            Sawyer was latched on to Jack’s every word. The tone in his voice and the untethered look in his eyes were begging her to fix this. His pleading urgency was making her heart race. Aside from keeping Mac alive, she couldn’t think of anything more important than not misplacing Jack’s trust. “Jack, I promise I will do everything in my power to make sure he gets through this. Trust me, I know what’s at stake. I know you are worried, and I know it will do me absolutely no good to ask you not to be. I will do my best for you Jack, but I need you to do something for me…”</p><p>            He was quick to oblige. “You name it, Doc. I’ll do whatever you need as long as it keeps him alive.”</p><p>            Sawyer braced herself for her next request. She knew Jack would lay down his life for any of them in a heartbeat without so much as a pause, but what she needed to ask was going to be difficult for him. “… I need you let me work without interfering. You can’t be the worried family member that second guesses everything I’m doing and rushes me for answers. There is a reason that hospitals have waiting areas for loved ones. If you want me to have complete focus on Mac, I can’t be worried about you too. I don’t mean to be harsh, but there won’t be any back seat doctoring in my lab. Can I trust you with that?”</p><p>            Jack’s first instinct was to push back a little. This was his boy they were talking about. He should have a say if something didn’t feel right, but he knew she was right. His feelings had to come second on this one. Sawyer was an expert at her craft, she could handle this. He nodded in agreement. “I can do that.”</p><p>            She eyed him skeptically. “Promise me?”</p><p>            Geesh, he thought. She really wasn’t messing around. “Cross my heart and all that other stuff, Doc. I’ll stay out of your way.”</p><p>            His words seemed to appease her. The tension started to dissipate so she could finally think straight. This was no different than any other puzzle she had been challenged with before. You know, other than the gun wielding murderers and the total psychopath calling the shots, this was just another day at the office.</p><p>            Sawyer turned to Mac. “Okay then, let’s get started. Take off your shirt.” A pretty red color crept across his freckled cheeks and he averted his eyes from hers bashfully. She instantly backpedaled to explain her lack of bedside manner. “I mean… I’m sorry. I… I just need to be able to touch you freely for this to work.” Her embarrassment deepened when she heard Jack and Emel giggle to each other. This is exactly the reason why she preferred working in a lab to treating patients. She closed her eyes and took a breath before trying again. “What I meant to say was, would you mind taking off your shirt so I can examine you? I need to attach a few leads, hook you up to a monitor and probably place a few IVs.”</p><p>            Mac looked back at her with a knowing smile. His words have gotten away from him plenty of times, so he was familiar with the mortified expression she was wearing. It wasn’t her fault that her words provoked a physical response in him. He unbuttoned his shirt and draped it neatly over the back of her computer chair. “It’s okay Dr. Price. I know the drill. I’m kind of a frequent flyer when it comes to this kind of stuff.”</p><p>            The understanding in his voice took the sting out of her discomfort. He had a warmth about him that made him really easy to be around. Except for this whole professional manners thing. That needed to stop. She approached him slowly and started to stick the monitor leads to his chest. “You know, Mac, if I can’t get you to call me Sawyer, I’m going to feel obligated to address you formally as well. It was Angus, right?”</p><p>            Mac returned the bright smile she was giving him. “I’m sorry. I really admire your work and all the strides you’ve taken for advancement in the medical field. I guess it felt disrespectful to not acknowledge the title that you’ve earned.”</p><p>            She sighed in relief as she turned on the machine that was now monitoring his vitals. She was still comfortable with the numbers she was seeing. “I appreciate that, but we’ve been through enough together in the short time I’ve known you. I think you’ve earned the perks of being a on a first name basis.”</p><p>            Mac was listening to her the best that he could but the feel of her hands traveling down his body was so distracting. Her touch was comforting and stimulating all at the same time. Her words didn’t come back into focus until she pressed down on the area near the stitches she had just given him. He involuntarily pulled away from her touch.</p><p>            She winced for him. “I’m sorry. I’ll be more gentle.”</p><p>            “No, it’s okay. You just surprised me. I wasn’t ready for it.” He watched curiously while she inserted a needle into his arm to draw blood.</p><p>            Jack’s voice chimed in from behind them. “Hey Doc, I know the kid would normally blend right in with the clouds, but he is looking extra pale. Think maybe you should get him a chair before you go taking any more blood from him?”</p><p>            Mac shot him a disgruntled look. “Dude, you just gave her your word like 5 minutes ago that you would keep your opinions to yourself.”</p><p>            Sawyer stepped in before Jack could give his rebuttal. “No, Mac he’s right. The last thing we need is for you to pass out and hit your head.” She turned to Jack with a look of mock discipline. “I’ll allow it Dalton, but you’re on thin ice.”</p><p>            Mac sat down in the chair he had draped his blood-stained shirt over and listened to Sawyer explain their next steps. “I need to examine your blood to see how the toxin is targeting your system. If I can lock down a pattern, we should be able to predict how you will be affected. If we know what to look for, we can be ready with a treatment.”</p><p>            She placed a blood slide under her microscope and studied the sample. Jack knew she was thinking as hard as she could but the silence was stretching out forever. He had experienced literal torture that was less painful than this. If she didn’t say something soon, he was going to explode. “How’s it looking over there, Doc? Know how to fix him yet?”</p><p>            Emel scolded him this time. “Jack! Give her time. Your impatience isn’t helping her not feel the pressure.”</p><p>            “Em, hunny, you of all people should know that patience is not a virtue that came installed on my hard drive.”</p><p>            “Oh, trust me Jack, I’m aware…” He wasn’t expecting the bite in her response. He would have to unpack that one later.</p><p>            Mac interrupted. “Guys… not helping.”</p><p>            Sawyer had yet to utter a word. Even Mac was starting to get concerned. She pulled away from her microscope and stepped aside so that Mac could see for himself. It had been a while since he had worked with cellular biology, but he remembered enough to know that what he was seeing in his blood was not normal. When he turned to look at Sawyer, he could see it on her face that she knew exactly what was going on. “Sawyer?”</p><p>            Jack was almost in tears. “Good God! Somebody please tell me what is going on! I don’t want to have to annoy it out of you Doc, but I will if I have to. And I’m real good at it too. Mac knows what I’m talking about!”</p><p>            Mac huffed. “It’s true. Once he starts talking, he won’t stop until you cave. They should have made him a CIA interrogator.”</p><p>            A small smile turned up at the corners of her mouth. She knew they were making light of things to cope with the situation, but no one was going to be smiling when she told them what they wanted to know. “It’s thinning your blood, but it also seems to be shredding your red blood cells.”</p><p>            Jack could tell from the looks on their faces that this wasn’t good news. “What’s that mean? How can something be shredding his blood? That doesn’t make any sense. Right, Mac?”</p><p>            Jack’s worry was tugging on Mac’s heart. How could he explain this without sending him into a complete panic? He wasn’t even sure he could keep himself from panicking. “The toxin is destroying my red blood cells faster than my body can regenerate them. Red blood cells are what carry the oxygen to our brains and vital organs. So eventually, without proper oxygen absorption, my system will stop functioning properly.”</p><p>            Jack looked perplexed. “Are you trying to tell me that this genius is trying to kill people with anemia?”</p><p>            Sawyer was impressed with Jack’s deduction. “Yes, and no. This is a different kind of anemia. You usually see this with certain type of blood cancers or autoimmune disorders. I’ve never seen anything this accelerated though. We need to keep a close eye on your hemoglobin levels. I’m worried that the toxin destroying the cells before your body can create more was a bit of an understatement. This sort of thing normally puts a person at risk for infections but considering you’re already fighting an infection… that doesn’t bode well. It’s going to set us up for complications and exasperate what is already going on. And that doesn’t even take into account the thinning blood.”</p><p>            Mac followed her gaze to the red fluid trickling down his arm from where she had drawn his blood. It should have stopped by now. Jack was quick to pick up on that too. “He shouldn’t be bleeding like that. Why is he still bleeding like that?!”</p><p>            Emel voiced a concern. “Sawyer… his stitches.”</p><p>            Fresh blood was seeping from around the sutures in his side. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to raise concerns. Sawyer shook her head as she applied pressure to his forearm. “Okay, this isn’t working. Mac, I need you to keep pressure on this for me. I need to try and reverse your clotting factors. Let me try a blood thinner antidote.”</p><p>            Sawyer was beginning to understand Jack’s lack of patience. The effects of the meds she administered usually started working within minutes but there was no sign of the bleeding easing up. Her voice was defeated. “It isn’t working…”</p><p>            Mac could sense the panic rising in her. The pressure of the day was starting to catch up with her. If she went over the edge now, he didn’t know if he could get her back in time… “Sawyer, is there a fully stocked kitchen in the building?”</p><p>            She looked at him like it was the most ridiculous question she had ever heard. “Yes. Why?”</p><p>            He brushed over her confusion. “Can you send Beth to go grab a few things for us?”</p><p>            “Yes, of course. If they’ll let her go.”</p><p>            It was a small enough obstacle to overcome. “Okay, grab a pen and paper. She’s going to need a list.”</p><p>            Sawyer read over the ingredients he listed and smiled to herself when she realized his plan. “Cayenne, Nettle, Cinnamon, Turmeric… You’re making styptic powder. That isn’t going to help with correcting your clotting factors.”</p><p>            He shook his head. “No, but it may work long enough on any open areas to clot at the source of the bleed. It’s worth a try.”</p><p>            Mac watched as Sawyer approached Silas across the room. He was sitting with his feet propped up on a table while watching Netflix on his phone. He had adopted a hands-off approach after providing Sawyer with her “motivation.” He was either extremely confident in her ability to give him what he wanted, or he didn’t think they were stupid enough to try and escape with his henchman around. Maybe both…</p><p>            Silas moved from his lounging position to invade Sawyer’s personal space. Her expression was clearly one of discomfort, but she refused to show him fear. It made Mac’s skin crawl when Silas drug his hand along her arm. He didn’t like her being this close to Silas, not while he was so far away from her. There were too many variables he couldn’t control.</p><p>            Jack’s voice broke his concentration. “Bud, I know that look. Heck, I invented that look. But I’m begging you, man. Just keep your ass in that seat. She’s fine. I’ve got my eye on her.”</p><p>            Emel backed him up. “Sawyer can handle herself. Plus, you know he won’t hurt her. She is literally the only person in this room that he needs alive.”</p><p>            He knew they were right, but he was still struggling. He turned his attention back to Jack after doing a quick scan to make sure they didn’t have eyes on them. He reached into his pants pocket to reveal his little red knife. “Jack, take this. They took your guns, but they missed this.” Mac placed the knife in Jack’s bound hands.</p><p>            Jack quickly hid the knife in the sleeve of his jacket when he noticed Silas approaching with Sawyer in tow. Beth had returned with all of Mac’s requests and apparently Silas was curious. “Mr. MacGyver! I hear I am going to get the pleasure of witnessing one of your improvisations.”</p><p>            “It won’t be that impressive. I’m just mixing ingredients.” Mac responded.</p><p>            Silas shot an antagonizing look toward Sawyer. “Don’t sell yourself short. You managed to muster up more than the good doctor here. I’m sincerely hoping I haven’t misjudged you Dr. Price. I would hate to find myself disappointed with your performance.”</p><p>            Everyone watched in silence while Mac instructed Sawyer on how to make his homemade remedy. She put it together with ease. They made a good team. Before she applied the mixture, her hand hovered over his skin. “Mac, this is going to burn.”</p><p>            He nodded her on. He knew what was coming. This wasn’t the first time he had used this particular solution. He was an accident-prone child. That was the only reason he was able to stifle his scream when Sawyer applied the powder over his arm and side.</p><p>            Silas seemed impressed. “Well, look at that! The bleeding already stopped. That’s a neat trick, Mr. MacGyver. But I’m afraid play time is over. You two need to get back to work.” He looked at the monitor Mac was hooked up to. “And from the looks of things, you may want to hurry. The 18-hour timeline I gave you might have been a bit optimistic.”</p><p>            Sawyer’s eyes darted over to the screen. There was already a drastic change in the numbers from the last time she had checked. “Your blood pressure is dropping, and your oxygen levels are at 93%. How are you feeling?”</p><p>            “Tired,” he admitted. “And dizzy.”</p><p>            She pressed the back of her hand to his forehead. “You’re burning up, Mac. I think we need to lay you down.”</p><p>            “I’m okay for now. Let’s keep working on this together while I still can.” He insisted.</p><p>            While he still can… She didn’t like the sound of that. It told her that he knew he was getting worse. “I want to run your blood sample against a few lesser-known toxins in my database. I can already rule out some of the more obvious choices just by the way it is presenting. I have a bad feeling that we are looking at a combination of different toxins but…”</p><p>            Mac finished her thought. “…But if we can narrow down the base structure, we will have a smaller list to cross reference.”</p><p>            “Exactly!” She beamed back at him. “We have to be smart about which tests we run. I only collected a couple vials of blood, and I don’t want to risk taking anymore. It was hard enough to stop the bleeding the first time around.”</p><p>            The clock ticked by as Jack watched them run test after test. The Doc was getting more frustrated by the minute. Every time something promising presented itself, the rug was swiftly pulled out from under them. Mac was still holding strong. Jack had been watching him like a hawk. His color was about the same, and those numbers on the screen that Sawyer mentioned hadn’t really changed. Maybe things were slowing down a little and they had more time. If Mac was right, the Phoenix team should be at their location in less than two hours now. They just had to make it two hours.</p><p>            His busy mind was interrupted by the sound of Emel’s sweet voice. To this day, he had yet to discover a sound more beautiful. Even when she sounded sad… “Jack, are we okay? You haven’t spoken in 15 minutes and you can’t even look at me. Please don’t hate me. I know this is all my fault.”</p><p>            A stabbing pain shot straight through his heart as her words sunk in. Hate her? That wasn’t possible. He closed his eyes and let his chin drop to his chest. “S’ not your fault, it’s mine. I’m not angry, I’m terrified.” He swallowed down a sob. “And I can’t look at yah because you’ll break me. Like you always do.”</p><p>            She watched a single tear glide down his cheek. His pain was too much for her to take. “I never meant to cause you all of this pain. I didn’t mean to break you. What can I do, Jack? How can I fix this?”</p><p>            The small smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth took her by surprise. “No, Em. You don’t understand…” He took a deep breath and forced himself to look at her face. The smile was gone now, and all she could see were those big brown eyes brimming with unshed tears. They were looking straight into her soul and begging to be understood. “You’ll break me. All these walls I spend so much time building. The parts of me I’ve been pretending aren’t there… You’ll break me down. And you’ll do it without even trying. Just because you’re you. It scares the hell out of me that you can see clean through me like that. Eventually you are going to see the truth. Old Humpty Dumpty can’t be put together again. I’m not ready for you to see what I already know…”</p><p>            Emel’s wrists were writhing against her restraints. She would have given anything to be able to touch him in that moment. “What do you already know, Jack?”</p><p>            “I know I’m not a good enough man for you. I never was. I’m no good for you, Em. I’ve been messing up your life since we were kids! And Michael… everything that happened with him was my fault. He asked one thing of me before he died, and I couldn’t even keep my word on that. Now look where we are…”</p><p>            His head hung to his chest in defeat. Never in her life had she seen him that vulnerable. He was afraid for her to see that much because it might change how she felt about him. He was right, it did change things. It made her love him more. She pulled a play straight out of the Jack Dalton playbook and hooked her leg around his hair to pull herself even closer to him. “Look at me Jack.”</p><p>            He shook his head. “I can’t.”</p><p>            Desperation angered her tone. “Look. At. Me.”</p><p>            Reluctantly, his eyes turned to meet hers. She pressed her forehead to his and sighed with relief. “There is absolutely nothing you could show me that would keep me from loving you. And I hate to break it to you baby, but those things you are so afraid of me seeing… I’ve seen them from day one. Those are the exact things that made me love you to begin with. So, you can try to build your walls. You can even run away from me again… But I will always see you Jack Dalton.”</p><p>            His voice was barely a whisper. “You’ll always know me.”</p><p>            “Mmhm,” she hummed into his ear.</p><p>            Jack turned his face into hers and pressed their lips together, sealing her promise with a kiss. Jack had been thinking about this since the moment she opened her front door. She tasted just like he remembered, and every time he inhaled, her scent would invade his nostrils. His mind flashed back to the first time she let him kiss her. That kiss was a lot like this one. It was sweet but heated. Brief but impactful. Filled with promise and long overdue.</p><p>            Jack had almost forgotten the outside would until they were yanked out of each other’s grasp abruptly. His eyes darted furiously around until they landed on a man behind Emel. It was the guard he had given a beat down to earlier in the evening. Apparently, he hadn’t learned his lesson from putting his hands on Em the first time around. Some people are just slow learners.</p><p>            Jack laughed out loud at how unbelievable this guy was. “Boy, you must be cruisin’ for a bruisin’ tonight. If your fat fingers aren’t off of her in three seconds…”</p><p>            The man snickered and walked toward Jack. “You two were a little too close for comfort over here. Silas was worried you may be planning an escape.” He began exaggeratedly patting Jack down, checking for anything they might have missed before. Jack rolled eyes until he remembered the Swiss Army Knife tucked into his sleeve. He tried to jerk away from the man’s prying hands, but it was too late. “Well, well, well… what do we have here?”</p><p>            Everyone’s attention was now honed in on Jack and his new BFF. Silas warned lazily from his chair across the room. “Dante, stop tormenting our guests. I need Dr. Price and Mr. MacGyver to focus on their work, not on your childish antics.”</p><p>            Dante held up the little red knife. “Look what I found, boss. He was trying to free himself with this. Who knows what he had planned for us after that? I think this problem needs neutralized.”</p><p>            Silas was annoyed now. “It’s too soon for that Dante. No one dies until I say they do. You’ll get your chance.”</p><p>            Silas’ words had deflated the man a little but not for long. Maybe he couldn’t kill him, but he could damn sure make him wish he were dead. He turned on his heel to face Jack and Emel again. Emel could tell by the crazy look in his eyes that trouble was coming. She barely had a chance to yell out her warning before he made his move. “Jack, look out!”</p><p>            Jack’s eyes darted from Em to the rabid man in front of him just in time for him to see the open blade of Mac’s knife coming straight for him.</p><p>            And there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop it…  </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The race against the clock is on! Please leave comments if something catches your eye :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>            Emel’s eyes were clenched shut. She couldn’t bring herself to open them, especially after hearing Jack’s pained scream. If her eyes stayed shut, she wouldn’t have to see whatever horrific action just took place. And as long as she didn’t acknowledge it, she could go on believing that Jack was still okay. He was sitting right next to her brooding over the way Mac looked too pale and how much he wanted to kill Dante for not learning his lesson. That was the reality she chose to accept.</p>
<p>            There was so much commotion going on in the room around her. Mac’s protective yelling rang in her ears, followed closely by Sawyer begging him not to exert himself. Why hadn’t she felt anyone approach them yet? Why wasn’t anyone trying to get to Jack?! A dark thought crossed her mind… What if there was nothing that could be done to help? What if the light that was Jack Dalton was snuffed out in less than a moment?</p>
<p>            That’s when she heard it… “SON OF A BI…!”</p>
<p>            Recognition overwhelmed her. That was Jack’s voice! He was alive and he sounded pissed. In pain but pissed. If there was still room for anger that was a good sign. Something still wasn’t adding up though. If Jack was okay, then where were those agonized screams still coming from?</p>
<p>            Emel’s worried eyes shot open and immediately searched for Jack. His face was contorted with pain as he stared down at his leg in shock. The knife Mac had given him was plunged deep into the muscle of Jack’s upper thigh. Emel’s heart slowly started to come down from the stratosphere. He was hurt but he was okay. His jaw clenched in a failed effort to bite back a stream of expletives, but the sounds of excruciating pain were not coming from him. Who was screaming?</p>
<p>            Sawyer was standing with her arms wrapped around Mac, pulling against his attempt to run towards Jack. They were both okay too. Why couldn’t her brain figure this out?! Someone was clearly in pain somewhere.</p>
<p>            Her confused stream of consciousness came to an abrupt halt when her eyes registered Silas’ towering form quickly approaching them. The look on his face sent a chill so deep in her that it settled in her bones. He was so out of place. The chaos that ensued around them completely contradicted his demeanor. His expression was calm, bordering on boredom. He seemed completely unaffected by it all. The only inkling of emotion Emel could detect was the brief smile of satisfaction that slipped from behind his iron mask when he looked upon the writhing figure on the floor at their feet. It was Dante…</p>
<p>            His screams were pleading. “STOP! MAKE IT STOP! OH GOD! HELP…HELP!”</p>
<p>            Silas raised the hand that was holding his cellphone and tapped the screen a few times before the screaming subsided. He crouched on his heels next to the man he employed. “Dante, I want you to remember this feeling. The next time that you’re tempted to blatantly disobey, try to recall that I have the prerogative and the ability to inflict this sensation with just a mere tap of my fingers. It takes truly little effort for me. It’s not even an inconvenience. In fact, I look forward for opportunities to arise, that I might get a chance to play with this new toy I’ve created. It communicates directly with that little implant you all so graciously accepted as term for your employment with me.” He reached down and gripped a handful of Dante’s hair, pulling his head slightly off the ground. “Let’s reflect, shall we? You suggested that our bound friend here was a threat and required handling. And what did I say?” Silas waited for Dante’s response, but one never came. His eyes stared up at Silas, trying to determine the rhetoric nature of the question. It didn’t take long for him to realize Silas required an actual answer. Silas wound his fingers deeper into the man’s hair and yanked violently. “WHAT DID I SAY?!”</p>
<p>            Dante cowered in fear. His voice broke in reply. “No, sir! You said no!”</p>
<p>            Like the little outburst had never transpired, Silas’ voice came back to normal. “That’s right. I said no, yet you still chose your own urges.”</p>
<p>            Silas stood, causing Dante to rise to his knees before being drug forward by his hair. He was being pulled face first towards Jack’s chair. Silas stopped just short of Jack’s injured leg and brought Dante eye level with the shiny red knife protruding from his torn flesh. He questioned his solider again with an eerily calm reserve. “Was this the barbaric action you chose instead of following my guidance?”</p>
<p>            Dante’s voice was strained from the pull on his neck. “Yes, sir.”</p>
<p>            Silas grinned with malicious intent. “Apologize…”</p>
<p>            “I’m sorry, sir,” Dante complied.</p>
<p>            “Oh, you misunderstand. I’ve already collected my reprisals.” Silas smirked at Jack. “Apologize to Mr. Dalton.”</p>
<p>            That order seemed to pain Dante more than the electric shock therapy Silas had inflicted. His disdain for Jack ran deep. Thinking better of upsetting his boss, Dante resigned. “I’m sorry… Mr. Dalton.”</p>
<p>            That was enough to please Silas who let go of the man’s hair giddily. “There! That wasn’t so hard. You’ve now established a precedent that you know how to follow direct orders. I will have something to base a decision on the next time I need to judge your behavior. Now, get up and make yourself scarce. I’m sure Jack is just as tired of looking at you as I am.”</p>
<p>            Jack looked on in disbelief. This Silas guy was a tough nut to crack. He may have been even crazier than Murdoc, and that was saying something. He looked over to see Emel’s eyes glazed over with worry. He mouthed her a comforting “I’m okay,” and watched some the tension release from her shoulders.</p>
<p>            Everyone’s attention shifted to the loud thud behind them. Sawyer’s terrified yelp cut like a hot knife through the awkward silence that Silas had created. “Mac!”</p>
<p>            The young agent had fallen to his knees, his entire body drooping from exhaustion. Sawyer was the only thing keeping him upright. She cupped his cheeks to lift his face and Jack could see the blood streaming freely from his nose, cascading over his lips and dripping from his chin to a puddle on the floor below him.</p>
<p>            His weight was starting to overpower Sawyer, so she pleaded for assistance. “Somebody help me! I can’t hold him up much longer.”</p>
<p>            Jack forgot himself and tried to rush to their aid. The sudden movement pulled at the knife in this thigh and caused him to hiss out in pain all over again. The frustration bubbled up into his throat until he was barking out an order of his own. “Hey! Mr. Evil Poison Guy! Either cut me free or lend her a hand!”</p>
<p>            Silas flashed Jack a look of admiration and decided to honor his request. He was at Sawyer’s side in seconds, helping to lower Mac to the ground. The leads she had placed on his chest before had been yanked off in the fall, and the machine monitoring his vitals was dinging with alarm bells.</p>
<p>            Silas studied Mac’s appearance with curiosity. He loved seeing the effects of his creations take place before his eyes. This one was moving along quite nicely. With the original poison, the symptoms came on too quickly to really observe the stages of decline. Mr. MacGyver was a beautiful example of what was going on inside a person’s body, one glorious step at a time.</p>
<p>            Sawyer cringed at what she saw on Silas’ face. She physically could not stand his close proximity for another second. Pushing his hands away so that he was no longer touching Mac, she snapped him out of his twisted daydream. “I can’t do this Silas! You made a mistake. I can’t…”</p>
<p>            Her words drifted off as her eyes scanned over Mac’s hypoxic features. Despite the blood saturating them red, she could see that distinct blue hue developing on his lips. Holding his hand in hers, she noticed the same blue appearing underneath his fingernails. Things were accelerating. He wasn’t getting enough oxygen and his thinning blood meant that he was losing too much too fast.</p>
<p>            Her efforts to stop this were being thwarted at every turn. She found herself suddenly irate at Silas’ unthorough preparation for his plan. How was she supposed to work like this?! “I need more than what you’ve given me!”</p>
<p>            Silas looked at her amused, clearly enjoying her struggle. “What more do you need Dr. Price? I think I have been fairly amenable to your requests. All things considering…”</p>
<p>            She roared back at him. “I need to know exactly what went in to creating this toxin! I need a sample that isn’t tainted with a previous infection! His immune system was already compromised. There is so much going on inside his body, and I can’t distinguish between the sources of his symptoms. I need the research. You haven’t given me anything useful. If I didn’t already know you wanted this for profit, I would assume you wanted me to fail.”</p>
<p>            Her tone had succeeded in sobering his mood. “I assure you; failure is not an option I planned for. I unfortunately don’t have the research that you’re speaking of. The scientist I originally recruited to help formulate this seemed to develop the same reservations as you’ve expressed. He finished the toxin but seeing the carnage of his work firsthand swayed his dedication to our cause. He refused to contribute any further, and before his untimely demise, he managed to destroy any traces of his work thus far. Lucky for me, he had already given me all that I needed to go through with phase one. The finished product is stored away some place safe until I can secure the remaining necessities.”</p>
<p>            The knot in Jack’s stomach tightened when he saw the look of defeat wash over Sawyer. She couldn’t give up. He had trusted her. Mac trusted her! She was going to keep her promise to him no matter how hard it was for her. She wasn’t allowed to stop until his heart stopped beating. And maybe not even then. This was Mac we were talking about here! The thought of a world without his pasty bomb nerd with the silly hamburger name was downright unacceptable to Jack. No, he wasn’t going to let this happen. Sawyer needed something and Mac needed Sawyer. The only logical conclusion Jack could draw was that he needed to make sure Sawyer got everything she was looking for.</p>
<p>            A hail Mary suggestion made its way to his lips. “The guards!”</p>
<p>            Sawyer looked up at him from her spot on the ground. Her hands were covered in blood, cradling Mac’s upper body in her lap. The light in her eyes started to brighten a little. She could recognize the hope in Jack’s words. He needed to bring her the rest of the way home. “You said you needed a cleaner sample, right Doc? Well, those guards out front have got a bookoo of the stuff running through their veins. And you could take all the blood you want from them because they don’t need it anymore!”</p>
<p>            Fresh eyes awakened from her defeat. She demanded Silas. “I need those bodies!” He was taken aback by her abruptness. “QUICKLY, SILAS!”</p>
<p>            His eyes sparked with adrenaline. “You heard the lady, bring us some bodies.”</p>
<p>            Sawyer’s next request bypassed Silas altogether. She pointed harshly at the man nursing a broken arm courtesy of Jack Dalton. “And you! Take Beth down the hall to the patient observation rooms and bring me back every piece of medical equipment you can find.” Her tone softened when she addressed her assistant. “Beth, if I’m going to have any chance of keeping him alive, I need O2. Bring me a nasal cannula, as many tanks as you can get your hands on, IV fluids, and transfusion equipment. There is a portable bed in one of the suites. Just dump everything you can find on the bed and wheel it back here. The warming blankets are in the cabinet next to the saline. Bring some of that too… Bring it all!” Beth turned quickly towards the door when Sawyer stopped her again. “And Beth… a defibrillator.”</p>
<p>            Jack’s mouth had gone bone dry. A defibrillator? Did she really think it was going to come to that? The fire he had lit in her was contagious. Emel looked like she was ready to rally around her friend, waiting anxiously for instructions for how to help. “Sawyer you can do this! What do you need from us? A sounding board? Extra hands? Just tell me what you need?”</p>
<p>            Jack watched Silas’ expression closely when Emel mentioned lending a helping hand. He didn’t seem phased. “I can help her Silas! I’m clearly not a threat. Look at me, what harm could it possibly do to untie me? I won’t cause any trouble; you have my word.”</p>
<p>            Silas took in Emel’s small, disheveled frame. His eyes lingered along her body a lot longer than Jack was comfortable with, but he controlled the impulse to come to her rescue. Silas may not consider her a threat, but Jack knew she was up to more than just helping her friend. She had that same look in her eye now as she did when she was sweettalking Jack into something he would normally never agree to. The woman was plenty dangerous, Jack mused to himself. His pulse quickened with pride at his beautiful, clever girl.</p>
<p>            Silas walked over to stand in front of Emel. Like they always did, his eyes searched every detail for information and truth. He tucked his index finger under her chin and lifted it to meet his gaze. His smile made her feel nauseated. “You’re a sweet one,” he declared. “And I believe you…”</p>
<p>            He moved behind her and she gasped when she felt the cool blade of his knife brush against her wrists. With one swift movement he had cut her free. Her arms fell forward to her sides and the muscles protested after being confined to one position for too long. She rubbed her wrists gingerly in an attempt to regain the feeling in her hands. Gathering herself, Emel looked over at Jack and slowly stood from her chair. Something about Silas’ lack of protest felt suspicious to her.  </p>
<p>            Her reservations were confirmed when his hands pushed down on her shoulders to keep her in her chair. “Not quite yet, my dear. First, we need to establish some parameters to your freedom. I will let you up to assist the doctor as long as you are aware of the stakes.” He turned quickly and pressed an injection gun to the back of Jack’s neck. Jack flinched when something broke the skin and inserted itself at the base of his skull.</p>
<p>            “What the hell, man!” Jack shouted and tried to shake off the sensation.</p>
<p>            “I’ve just implanted your paramour with the same device you’ve seen demonstrated on Dante. Any funny business whatsoever and Dante’s experience will look mild in comparison. That seems fair to me. Are those terms suitable for you?”</p>
<p>            Emel swallowed hard. “Yes. Now let me up so I can help my friend clean up your mess.”</p>
<p>            His eyes squinted at her before he released his hold on her shoulders. “As you wish…”</p>
<p>            Jack was furious. Why did everyone think they needed to touch her?! “Em…” His voice pleaded with her.</p>
<p>            Her eyes meant to sooth him but also warn him. “I’ll be fine.”</p>
<p>            Fine… Jack was so tired of hearing that word today. Mac said he was fine when they first noticed his wound. He said he’d be fine when he injected himself with that junk! And now Em too. He most certainly was not fine with Silas’ brain tickler being lodged at the base of his skull.  Nothing about any of this was fine. Somebody needed to come up with a new word to use because if he heard that one another time he might lose it.</p>
<p>            Emel lowered herself to the ground next to Sawyer. Mac was still resting in her lap while they waited for Beth to return with life saving measures. Emel couldn’t believe the drastic change in his condition. Up close she could really see how broken he looked. One hand was clinging to Sawyer’s for comfort while the other clutched the side of his head in pain. His skin was almost translucent he was so pale. Emel voiced the obvious. “Sawyer, he looks…”</p>
<p>            “I know,” she said. Her free hand was running through his sweat drenched hair trying to sooth him. Emel wasn’t sure she had ever seen that look in her friend’s eyes before. Sawyer was always so sure of herself. At least she had always seemed that way. But the look Emel was seeing now was unmistakably doubt. It looked foreign on her features. Emel didn’t like it at all and prayed she would never have to see it again.</p>
<p>            She reached out and squeezed Sawyer’s ankle to reassure her of her presence. “Hey…breathe. I’m here now. I’m right here with you. You don’t have to do this by yourself anymore.” Emel could see the spiral beginning in Sawyer’s mind. It was a rare occurrence but luckily Emel knew how to redirect her. She needed something sure, something steady. She needed an anchor so she could find her starting point. “Sawyer look at me and breathe. Listen to what I’m saying. You are fully capable of handling these kinds of situations. You know how. All the information you need is stored in that big, beautiful brain. You can, and you will figure this out. You can help him. You can stop this.”</p>
<p>            Emel looked down at the man who reminded her so much of her brother. This wasn’t something she wanted to relive, and she didn’t want Jack to lose another person who was so important to him. She directed Sawyer’s attention to Mac’s face. “Look at him Sawyer. Tell me what you see…”</p>
<p>            Sawyers eyes cleared as she took in the details of Mac’s face. “Blood. Too much blood.”</p>
<p>            He now had trickles of blood coming from each ear. “What else?” Emel inched her on.</p>
<p>            “He’s in pain and developing symptoms of hypoxia.” She stared down at him so hard. It was like she was afraid he’d disappear if she looked away. “But he’s breathing, and he’s still conscious.”</p>
<p>            Emel was relieved that Sawyer was able to latch onto the hope instead of the easily accessible despair flooding the room. “Good, that’s good. Tell me where you’d start. I know you already have a plan for damage control rolling around in your head. Tell me what our plan is so that I’m ready when Beth comes back.”</p>
<p>            Emel had never been more grateful for the “What If” training that Michael and Jack had forced her through when they got involved with the CIA. At the time she thought they were being overly paranoid, but that training is the reason she knew exactly how to lead Sawyer back to herself.</p>
<p>            Sawyer tore her eyes away from Mac to focus on Emel. “The plan… Okay, first I need to get a reading on his vitals. So, when Beth comes back, I need you to help me get him up and into the bed. The less exertion on his system the better. We need to get him extra oxygen immediately. Beth can help me with all the wires and tubes, but he is going to need you. The longer he goes without proper oxygen absorption, the more tired and confused he is going to be. A familiar face and a voice he trusts will be important. The calmer we keep him the easier this will be. Keep him talking and engaged. Sleep is not our friend in this scenario.”</p>
<p>            “Got it. Sleep is bad. Anything else?” Emel was ready to do whatever was needed of her.</p>
<p>            Before Sawyer could answer her, Beth came hurriedly through the door of the lab with what looked like enough medical supplies to build their own hospital. “Quick, help me get him up!”</p>
<p>            Emel heaved as she tried to lift Mac from the floor. He was a lot heavier than he looked. Of course, it didn’t help that he couldn’t provide them any assistance. Emel wasn’t even sure if he realized he was being moved. His eyes were still clenched tight to protect him from the light worsening his already unbearable headache. Every so often she would hear a heartbreaking moan escape his chest. She had to keep repeating Sawyer’s previous words in her head. At least he was still breathing.</p>
<p>            Beth and Sawyer were quick in their actions. Mac was settled in the portable bed and attached to an unsettling amount of wires within two minutes. Emel almost felt obsolete until Sawyer called her to action. “Emel, keep him with us! Make sure he knows what’s going on.”</p>
<p>            Emel took her place above his head so that she would be in his direct line of sight, and to get out of Sawyer’s way. She reached down and took his face between her hands to let him know she was there. “Mac, it’s okay. You’re going to be okay. Can you hear me?” He wasn’t responding to her voice. He was too busy trying to yank his hand from Beth’s hold so that he could bring it back to put pressure on his eyes.</p>
<p>            Pressure, he needed pressure. She could do that. She moved her fingers to his temples and started to move them in deliberate circles. She could remember Michael always doing this for her when she suffered from her inevitable yearly sinus infections. Mac seemed to relax slightly at her touch. This was her window to try again. “Mac, open your eyes for me. I promise you’re alright. Sawyer’s got you, but she can use all the help she can get. Don’t make this harder on her.”</p>
<p>            Still, nothing. She was almost certain that appealing to his need to take care of everyone else around him would pull him from the depths of his pain. Maybe it was worse than she thought. “Mac… please.”</p>
<p>            Mac could feel multiple pairs of hands tugging at his body. All he could do was hope that their intention was to help him, because he didn’t have the capability to fight back right now. All of his limbs felt like they were filled with lead, weighing him down to the ground. And God… he was so tired. If it weren’t for the piercing pain shooting through his head, he probably would have already slipped into unconsciousness. The only place on his body that he felt like he still had control over was his eyelids. He was able to command them tightly shut. He was aware that he had been laid down on something soft and then the hands were back. There was a sharp prick at the crook of his elbow and again on the top of his hand. Something cold and sticky was being placed on his chest. A series of beeps sounded from next to him and he almost screamed. It was so loud! God, someone make it stop! He wanted to bring his hands up to cover his ears but before he could someone had done it for him. He could feel a set of warm hands gripping his face. They provided a nice barrier between his eardrums and the deafening beeps. He wished they would squeeze a little tighter, and like the person was reading his mind, he felt the pressure of two fingers circling into his temples. It felt nice. A small piece of his fear was put to rest just then. These hands were reassuring. They were trying to ease his pain. Someone trying to kill him wouldn’t do something like that.</p>
<p>            Breathing was getting harder and harder for him. He could taste a hot metallic liquid running down his throat threatening to drown him. He wanted to cough it back up, but he was laying too flat. It was dripping freely into his waiting lungs. There was a cold, wet sensation wiping across his nose and mouth followed by the overpowering smell of antiseptic. He could feel the upper half of his body being lifted again. It got substantially easier to breathe once he didn’t feel like he was drowning. A fresh wave of oxygen opened his lungs causing him to gasp out desperately. Something was strapped across his face, hooked in place at his nostrils. Air… they were giving him air. They really were trying to help him.</p>
<p>            His panic started easing away when he realized this wasn’t an attack he couldn’t fight off. If they were helping him, maybe he could relax. Maybe he could drift lazily through sleep until the pain stopped. That dream was short lived when he registered someone pleading his name. The voice was familiar. Something told him he should listen. Keep listening. They are trying to help you. It was a woman’s voice, but he couldn’t place it. It wasn’t Matty and it wasn’t Riley. Who was it? Where was he even at right now?”</p>
<p>            The pleading continued until the voice become clearer and clearer. “Mac, it’s okay. You’re going to be okay. Don’t make this harder for her…” Those words sparked something in him. He didn’t know who the “her” was, but he knew he didn’t want to make things more complicated. She needed his help, but how? What could he do?</p>
<p>            The mystery voice answered his silent question. “Open your eyes Mac. Mac… please.”</p>
<p>            He was afraid. He knew opening his eyes to the light would bring on a new bout of pain, but he trusted something in her voice. Slowly, he blinked his eyes open. Her image was blurry at first but when his eyes adjusted, he knew her immediately. Emel…</p>
<p>            Emel released the breath she had been holding when she saw his eyes flicker open. He was looking right at her, but she could tell he wasn’t really seeing her. She didn’t think it was possible for his eyes to look anymore blue, but there was such a stark contrast between his steel blue gaze and his ever-paling white skin.</p>
<p>            It was easy to see the moment he recognized her. Relief flashed across his eyes before a new panic set in. “Emel…”</p>
<p>            Hearing his voice almost made her want to cry. It was quiet and weak, but he still sounded like him. “Yeah, it’s me Mac. I’m right here.”</p>
<p>            “Where’s… Jack? JACK?” He yelled out. The last thing he remembered was watching that psycho stabbing his knife into Jack’s body. What happened? How long had he been out? If Emel was standing here next to him, then why wasn’t Jack there too? Jack was always there…</p>
<p>            The fear in the kid’s voice sent Jack’s protective nature into overdrive. His boy needed him. “I’m here buddy! I’m okay. I’d never leave you; you know that. Just relax and let Em and the Doc help you. I’m not going anywhere, I promise. Don’t worry…”</p>
<p>            Jack’s voice was enough to keep Mac from thrashing around and pulling out his IVs. He sounded okay.</p>
<p>The voice of his partner was replaced with another that he recognized. The one that he remembered being so easy to latch onto. He was pretty sure that she could coax him into just about anything if she really wanted.</p>
<p>            “Mac, are you with me,” she asked?</p>
<p>            An easy smile stretched across his cheeks. “Sawyer…What happened?”</p>
<p>            Reaching up, she pushed his hair out his eyes. “Jack was in trouble and it was too much stress for your body to take. You collapsed on me. He’s okay, Mac. You both are…” She looked over her shoulder to the machine telling his life story. “How are you feeling?”</p>
<p>            Worry was permanently etched on her beautiful face and he felt the guilt for putting it there. He could tell she hadn’t told him the whole story yet. “Confused. I can’t remember…did we solve it?”</p>
<p>            Sadness dulled her eyes. “No, not yet. But we will. Jack had an idea.”</p>
<p>            Of course he did… Mac smiled to himself at the thought. “He’s full of those.”</p>
<p>            Her face sterned and he knew she had hard news. “Mac, you’re getting sicker and it is happening way too fast. Your O2 stats dropped below 90%. I’ve got your IV fluids pushed wide open, but they aren’t doing much in the way of improvement. You need blood. It is the only thing I haven’t tried to replace your red blood counts.”</p>
<p>            If she knew he needed blood, then why hadn’t she given him any yet? It didn’t take long for him to figure it out. “But you’re worried I’m bleeding too fast for it have a chance to work?”</p>
<p>            “We only had 3 units of AB- blood in our storage banks. That could buy us an hour. Maybe…” They both knew an hour wasn’t very much time at all. And once the blood was gone, things would go downhill fast.</p>
<p>            Mac broke the silence that had fallen between them. “What do we have to lose?”</p>
<p>            You, you dumbass. We could lose you… She picked up a bag of dark red liquid that had been sitting on the table behind her and hung it from his IV stand. He watched as the substance flowed down the tube and entered his body through the line in his arm. Now all they could do was wait.</p>
<p>            He needed something to help pass the time. Something to take his mind away from the pain that was starting to creep up in his chest. “So, what was Jack’s big idea?”</p>
<p>            Her smile beamed down at him. She was eager to fill him in on a promising possibility.</p>
<p>            Right on time, Silas’ goon squad came bursting through the lab doors dragging the bodies of two dead guards behind them. They came all the way over to drop them at her feet.</p>
<p>            Silas had followed them over as well. He never liked to miss an opportunity for theatrics.</p>
<p>“Don’t say I never gave you anything…”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Silas just seems to get creepier and creepier.<br/>How is everyone feeling about the medical lingo? Too much?<br/>I hope you enjoy. The next chapter will most likely be the last unless I split it into two. Please leave your thoughts. I love them!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>         A look of confusion colored Mac’s face as he stared down at the bodies on the floor. This should probably all make sense to him, but the exhaustion was making it hard for him to put two and two together. Sawyer interpreted his expression correctly and filled in the blanks. “Remember that brilliant idea of Jack’s that I mentioned?”</p><p>            Understanding finally hit and a radiant smile lit his face. Leave it to Jack… “This was your doing, big guy?”</p><p>            Jack shrugged his shoulders and returned Mac’s smile. He was happy the kid was talking at all. “Things were looking glum, so I improvised.”</p><p>            Sawyer gave him the credit he deserved. “Well, your improvising may have just saved his life.”</p><p>            Emel felt her heart swell as she looked at him. She wasn’t sure how it was possible that a man like him even existed, and she was even less sure how she managed to be lucky enough to know him. She reached down and ran her knuckles along his jawline. “Yeah, he does that from time to time.”</p><p>            The overwhelming admiration was starting to make Jack uncomfortable. He was fighting the urge to crawl out of his own skin. “You guys can thank me when we’re all out of here and still alive. But for now, let’s focus on keeping this knucklehead from dying and maybe stop Silas from ruining junk food for me.”</p><p>            Jack’s words kicked Sawyer into action. They were running out of time and she needed to keep moving. If she could just figure out how to isolate the toxins in the bloodstream, she would be halfway to solving their problems.</p><p>            She knelt down on the ground so she could take what she needed from the familiar faces of the guards she had worked side by side with for over a year now. Remorse filled her eyes as she took in the condition of the bodies. She knew these men. She knew their families. And now they were dead because of her. Out of respect, Sawyer reached up and closed the eyes of the man she was drawing blood from. The fear was still lingering behind his pupils and it was too much for her to know. As much as she didn’t want to, she needed to examine the extent of their sufferings. If she could see what other symptoms presented, she would have a better idea of what Mac had ahead of him.</p><p>            At first glance, she noticed a lot of the same indicators Mac was already experiencing. Blood coming from the nose and ears. It also seemed to be coming from tear ducts but thank God Mac didn’t seem to be experiencing that yet. There were signs of massive amounts of blood in the airways as well. She knew it was a possibility from the beginning but now she was certain. Whatever this was, it was causing colossal internal bleeding. That, coupled with the loss of oxygen in the blood, was going to be disastrous for the lungs. The chances of a pulmonary embolism, hemothorax and respiratory distress were significantly higher now. The heart and the brain were also an immediate concern. He could develop a fatal brain bleed or throw a clot and be gone in minutes. And it was more of a matter of when, not if, his heart would experience too much stress and be overloaded. It was becoming more and more apparent that she needed to hurry. The quickness of Mac’s progression would lead him to all of these outcomes if she couldn’t figure this out. There wasn’t even the underlying reassurance of a quick and painless death. It would be excruciating. He’d feel every second of his body giving out on him, and she would see the same fear behind his eyes that she had just seen permanently etched in her fallen friend.</p><p>            Sawyer jumped when Silas’ voice appeared from above her. He had quietly approached without her even noticing. A shiver crawled down her back at the thought of him lingering silently to observe her. “It’s quite impressive isn’t it? The accuracy and fervor at which it attacks… it’s literally breathtaking.” He laughed sadistically at his own distasteful joke. “Of course, with your help, phase two won’t be nearly as gruesome. Well, at least not a first. No, no, nothing so violent. It would look much like the beginnings of a harmless chest cold. They may think they have an upper respiratory infection or pneumonia. The doctors will undoubtably over treat with antibiotics, per usual, and the toxin will go unchecked for months. All while they continue to stuff their faces with chemical packed comfort foods. It’s ironic that the things from which they seek comfort will be the very things slowly killing them.”</p><p>            Sawyer stared up at him in disbelief. What drove a person to this? How did he end up this way? She was disgusted. “Why are you doing this? You already have more money than you know what to do with.”</p><p>            He shrugged nonchalantly as if the answer were obvious. “Because I can…”</p><p>            How had she ever at one point trusted this man? How did he fool her so effortlessly into thinking he believed in her viewpoints and concerns for the future? He claimed to see the importance of her work and the validity of her research. He had confirmed that some of the threats she theorized were very real and alive. She just never imagined that those threats would come directly from the man offering to be a benefactor to better the future. She felt like an idiot and deeply, deeply ashamed. What would people think if they knew she had previous dealings with this monster? They would have to think the worst of her, and rightly so. Maybe if she had been more observant and not so blinded by the massive check he wrote her, she could have prevented any of this from happening.</p><p>            Emel’s voice joined the commentary. “That’s a stupid reason. There are plenty of things I’m capable of doing but I choose not to because I’m not demented. Like right now for instance…” Her eyes seared into Silas with disdain.</p><p>            Silas chortled delightedly. “My, my, you are a fun one. I recognize the potential for untoward acts just below your pretty surface.” His sudden force caused her to audibly gasp for air. Two strong hands had locked around the backs of her arms and pulled her forward, pressing their bodies together. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply along the side of her neck. “Ahhh, it’s so exhilarating! Can you feel how fast you’ve got my heart pumping? I’m certain we could do great things together. There’s a lot of promise in you, you only need to let me unlock it.”</p><p>            Jack was pulling so hard against his restraints that he could feel the muscle in his shoulder starting to tear. He didn’t care, as long as it meant he could get Em away from this freak. His efforts to escape came to an abrupt halt when Sawyer’s lab assistant plunged a syringe into Silas’ bicep and released the plunger. Jack’s heart stopped. He knew what was going to happen before it even played out. He knew she was trying to be brave. She was trying the only way she knew how to save them all from the tyrant in front of her. She had taken the sedative intended for Mac and injected it into the bloodstream of a man three times his size. The dosing wouldn’t have been equivalent. What would have knocked Mac out cold only served to piss Silas off.</p><p>            Silas turned his head to her in quiet fury. He looked her dead in the eye. “Ouch…” Dropping his hold from Emel, his hands reached out to wrap around Beth’s petite neck and squeezed until a sickening snap stilled the entire room. Her body hung lifelessly from his hands until he dropped her in a heap on the floor. He looked down at the needle still sticking from his arm and plucked it out in annoyance.</p><p>            His attention snapped back to Sawyer. “I’m running out of people to kill. I suggest you hurry before I get to the really important ones.”</p><p>            Sawyer stood frozen in place, staring at a motionless Beth on her lab floor. The blood in her veins turned to ice water as the dread washed over her. She couldn’t muster up the words to respond. All she could do was nod at him in understanding.</p><p>            Emel was standing at her side gently squeezing her elbow. It had been a few minutes since she’d moved. “Sawyer…?” Her eyes slowly tore away from yet another dead friend and stared desperately into Emel’s. “You have to keep going. We can’t afford to stop now.”</p><p>            Sawyer followed her friend’s gaze to land on Mac who had started to freely bleed again. The blood from his nose was running down his exposed chest and spilling over his sides to the white sheet underneath him. Beth had hung the third bag of AB- blood before her encounter with Silas. It was almost empty now and his blood pressure was bottoming out. It wasn’t long before the monitor was alerting them to his increased heartrate. Sawyer rushed over to him, dragging Emel along with her, and pressed her fingers to his neck feeling his pulse. It wasn’t a false reading; his pulse was climbing drastically.</p><p>            Quickly, Sawyer instructed Emel on how to help her. “Emel, push that lever and lay him flat! I need to get his feet elevated.”</p><p>            Sawyer searched manically through the bin of medications that Beth managed to find. Her heart was in her throat. She couldn’t find what she was looking for. Frustration coaxed a growl from her chest, and she dumped the contents of the box onto her lab station for easier access. “Damn it! I can’t find it. It’s not here!”</p><p>            Tears were freely falling down her face now as her hands hunted through the pile of liquid filled vials. Her eyes fixated on the names running across each label, but they never found what they were looking for.</p><p>            Emel’s hands wrapped around Sawyer’s writs to halt her frantic movement. “Sawyer let me help you. Tell me what you’re looking for.”</p><p>            Sawyer yanked her hands away and continued her search. She couldn’t take the time to stop and explain, and she couldn’t look her friend in the face. She had to stay focused on this task. If she stopped, she would fall apart. Her emergency medicine rotation had been the final experience that solidified her path in research. The stakes we too high. Too many peopled died. Her lab was supposed to be the safe place away from all that. Her world had been violated and she found herself smack dab in the middle of the very sort of situation she was trying to hide from.</p><p>            Her friend’s voice was still persistent in her ear, begging her to slow down and accept her help. She couldn’t slow down, but she decided there was no reason two people couldn’t try. “He needs vasopressors! I have to get his pressure back up. There aren’t any here! Why aren’t there any here?!”</p><p>            Emel patiently approached her again. “Sawyer I’m not a doctor. What does that mean? Tell me exactly what I’m looking for.”</p><p>            Sawyer took a steadying breath. “Epinephrine. He needs Epi…”</p><p>            Emel quickly understood the magnitude of Sawyer’s panic. They had looked through the remaining medicines at least twice and couldn’t find what they needed. The beeping of Mac’s monitor served as an ever-present reminder that they were failing. Emel almost let out a scream of her own, but then she noticed the tray of prepared syringes sitting on the chair next to Mac’s bed. Beth must have already anticipated the need. She left Sawyer to her futile mission and gathered the tray herself. She didn’t want to give Sawyer hope until she knew exactly what was in those vials.</p><p>            “EPINEPHERINE! Sawyer, I’ve got it! This is what you need, right?” Emel’s voice shot up in volume at her excitement. “There are three here. How many do you need?”</p><p>            Sawyer didn’t waste any time. She removed the needle from Emel’s outstretched hand and inserted it immediately into Mac’s IV. “Just one… for now.”</p><p>            Jack, Emel and Sawyer all watched in suspense. Jack was the first to speak. “Did it work, Doc? Is he alright?”</p><p>            Sawyer’s nervousness reflected Jack’s as she pressed her fingers back to Mac’s neck. She felt his pulse steady under her touch right along the with monitor’s beeping. Her sigh of relief sounded dangerously close to a sob. “For now… but the Epi won’t hold him forever. He needs more blood.”</p><p>            Jack didn’t miss a beat. “He can have mine. However much he needs, just take it.”</p><p>            “Are you a universal donor,” she asked? She tried to restrain the hope in her chest until she knew his answer.</p><p>            “Yeah, type O neg. String me up Doc. Let’s go!” Jack demanded.</p><p>            Emel’s voice was laced with concern. He had already been through so much today. The toll this would take on his exhausted body was going to be a lot. And while she knew it wasn’t an alarming amount, he was already losing a little bit of blood from the knife still stuck in his thigh. “Are you sure Jack?”</p><p>            She didn’t mean to be selfish but she was secretly hoping he would rethink this. It wasn’t a normal scenario. It’s not like he was walking into the Red Cross to donate. What if something went wrong?</p><p>           Jack seemed to read the worry on her face and reassured her. “I’m sure. Don’t worry, I’ve done something like this before. This should be a piece of cake compared to last time.”</p><p>          Sawyer was already prepared with the supplies she needed to get started. There was only one thing standing in her way. “Silas! Get him out of these restraints. I need his arms free.”</p><p>          He raised an eyebrow at her. “I beg your pardon… why on earth would I do that? He’s proven himself to be very resourceful. That seems like a liability for me.”</p><p>          “Cut the crap, Silas! We all know you’re in control no matter what we do. Him being untied won’t give us the illusion of an uprising. You chipped him, didn’t you? None of us have forgotten that. Just let him go. I need his blood.”</p><p>          Something sinister flashed across his mind and his carefully constructed mask slipped for the second time tonight, allowing Emel to see the horrors that lived beneath. She had a bad feeling about his. “You raise a fair point Dr. Price. I can concede to your request, but I’m not your errand boy. If you want him free, get him out yourself.” He waved his cellphone in front of his face as both a reminder of his hold on Jack and as a reason for his laziness. “Now, no more interruptions. I’m trying to finish a riveting two-part finale of CSI. I’m dying to know if this Nick Stokes fellow makes it out alive.” He looked down at his phone screen and then back up to Jack. “You know, you kind of remind me of him. Obviously not as intelligent and far less good looking, but still…”</p><p>          Emel resisted the urge to bite back at his insult. Her desire to have Jack free and holding her won out by a landslide. She tried tirelessly to unwind the knots binding his wrists, but they were too tight. She almost gave up when inspiration struck. Circling around so that she was on her knees in front of him, she braced him for what came next. “I can’t get the knots loose, but I have an idea. Do you trust me?” He nodded his head when he realized her hand has hovering around the knife in his leg. She acknowledged his approval. “Okay, I’ll be quick.”</p><p>         She yanked the knife from his leg in one swift motion. She had to pull a lot harder than she thought to work it free. She could feel his entire body tense beneath her as he protested to the pain. She made quick work of the cables holding him captive and then he was free.</p><p>          He was wrapped around her in seconds. He had been in pain this whole time, but it wasn’t until now that he realized most of his suffering was coming from the unrelieved tension of not being able to be holding her, protecting her, comforting her. The feeling of her delicate frame folded into his was like a shot of morphine. He vowed to himself right there and then that he wouldn’t let her more that 6 inches away from him for the rest of the night.</p><p>          When he let her go, Mac was all he could see. Fear was climbing up his back to rest on his shoulders. He looked bad. Even worse than the night he pulled him out if the water after being shot. Jack liked to fancy himself an optimist, but the sight of his best friend had him preparing himself for the possibility of the worst.</p><p>         Jack took one step forward towards his partner and immediately dropped to the ground. There was a sharp stinging sensation traveling down his spine and into the muscles of his legs. Emel was at his side in seconds. “Jack?!”</p><p>         The sounds of Silas’ roaring laughter could be heard from across the room. He was unashamed in response to everyone’s deathly glares. “Just a friendly reminder.”</p><p>         Jack wanted to charge across the room and lay this bastard out, but he knew that mission would have been in vain. He didn’t want to end up like Beth because he couldn’t control his temper. Not while Mac and Emel still needed him. He slowly rose to his feet and looked up to find Sawyer. She was standing at attention, ready to jump in with aid at moment’s notice.</p><p>         She looked at him skeptically. “You good?”</p><p>          Jack did what he did best and deflected her concern with humor and an ornery smirk. “Oh, I’m peachy Doc. Aren’t you glad I broke all your rules and stuck my nose where it didn’t belong?”</p><p>         She couldn’t even hide her amusement; his statement was so ridiculously true. “You have no idea, Dalton.” She wrapped him in a quick hug before bringing the focus back to Mac. “Are you ready to get started?”</p><p>         Jack smiled devilishly. “What, you’re not going to tell me to take my shirt off too? I see how it is…” Sawyer turned a color of red Jack had never seen in nature before today. She was almost as easy a target as Mac. “I’m just kidding with you, Doc. Where do you want me?”</p><p>         She motioned for him to take a seat in the chair next to Mac’s bed. He looked at her with hesitation. “I think I’m going to stand for a while. I’ve been sitting way too long.”</p><p>         Sawyer didn’t look happy with that. “I’d prefer if you sat. I don’t want to risk you passing out. Plus, you are clearly favoring your right leg. Is it your ankle?”</p><p>         Jack laughed, “Yeah, and a stab wound.”</p><p>         “You’re making my case for me,” she replied.</p><p>          Jack wasn’t lying about his backside needing a break but really, he wanted to be able to stand and watch over Mac. “Sawyer, I give you my word I will sit down if I start feeling tired. Just give me a little while with him?”</p><p>          She nodded with her consent and reached out for Jack’s arm. The cold alcohol wipe startled him when she wiped it across his skin. He watched her steady hands insert a needle effortlessly into his vein and then his blood was flowing through the clear tube into Mac’s arm. “We should see a change soon. This should give me enough time to finish my antidote. I’m halfway there. Taking samples from the guards was a good idea. Thanks for that…”</p><p>          Jack gave her a comforting look. “Any time kiddo. I’m sure you would have gotten there eventually. I was just helpin’.”</p><p>          Emel moved to stand next to him and slid her hand into his. “Do you think your backup team will be here soon?”</p><p>          Jack pressed a kiss on the top of her head. “God, I hope so. I’d guess we’ve got about an hour. Can you work with that Sawyer?”</p><p>          “I think so,” she replied. “I’m just praying he can.”</p><p>          Sawyer leaned down a little closer to Mac’s face and gently coaxed him awake. “Mac, somebody wants to see you.”</p><p>          His sleepy blue eyes fluttered open to study her features. Something about her seemed different. Her expression was softer, more relaxed. She looked genuinely happy to see him. A stray piece of her dark brown hair was cascading down around her cheek and framing her face. An errant thought passed through his mind as he enjoyed her warm proximity. Her hair, though gorgeous, was concealing too much of her face. He missed being able to see the small sprinkling of freckles on her cheek bone. His fingers brushed along her cheek and tucked her hair behind her ear. Her skin was smooth under his touch and he could feel the heat from her blush rush up to meet his fingertips. He didn’t mean to, but he said what he was thinking out loud. “You’re really beautiful.”</p><p>          His words danced their way into her heart. His expression was honest and uninhibited, displaying the truth behind his declaration. This was the first time she had ever heard those words and believed them. He captured her attention so easily that she had to remind herself of the matter at hand. She smiled at him and pressed her hand to the back of his forehead to check his temp. “Mac, Jack wants to talk to you.”</p><p>         The mention of Jack’s name seemed to perk him up a little. His eyes searched out for the man who had come to be a brother to him. When he saw Jack standing there, his eyes welled up with tears and rolled down his cheeks. Jack was there. Everything was going to be okay now. Jack always made everything better somehow.</p><p>          Mac hardly ever cried, and when he did, he almost never let anybody see it. The phenomenon alerted Jack and he cupped Mac’s neck in his big hand, willing every ounce of strength he had into the kid’s body. “Hey buddy, it’s okay. No need for waterworks. You’re going set off a chain reaction if you don’t cut it out.” Jack brought his other hand up, still entwined with Emel’s, and dabbed a rogue tear dry.</p><p>         Mac looked over the older man carefully. It seemed like it had been hours since he was actually able to look at him. He looked dead on his feet. “You okay?”</p><p>         Mac’s chest heaved as he tried to fight back a painful cough. Every breath was noticeably harder than the last. Jack hushed him. “Of course I am. You should quit talking and save some strength. I’m lending you some of mine in the meantime.” Jack lifted his arm so Mac could see the IV connecting them. “You’re about to have some of that Dalton fire surging through those veins.”</p><p>         Mac laughed, recognizing Jack’s reference, and fought back another cough. “S’ not how… works.”</p><p>         Three sets of worried eyes stared down at Mac’s face as he dozed off again. It was getting harder and harder to keep him awake. Sawyer took that as her cue to get back to the task at hand. “I’m going to run a few more tests. I think I’ve got a good direction to go in. Can you guys keep an eye on him? Listen for any changes in his breathing and monitor his bleeding. Emel, if his blood pressure starts to drop again, give him another round of Epi. And Jack…” He reluctantly looked away from Mac to acknowledge her. “I think you should sit down now.”</p><p>         Emel took one look at his clammy face and pushed the chair up behind his knees. He was already starting to lose a little color from his cheeks. “Hold me for a while,” she bribed?</p><p>         He gave in immediately. “Darlin’, I can’t think of anything I’d like more right now.”</p><p>         Emel climbed into his lap gingerly, careful to avoid the tender area on his thigh. She cupped her hand around the back of his neck and pressed his forehead into hers. Her fingers mindlessly played with the hair at the nape of his neck. Despite their surroundings, it was a nice moment. It would have been perfect if they were on her comfy couch, wrapped in warm blankets with Bingo curled up at their feet. Oh God, Bingo… She left the house so suddenly tonight she didn’t even say goodbye. With everything going on, a dog should probably be the last thing that was on her mind but now that she remembered she couldn’t stop thinking about him. What if the last time she saw him was the last time she saw him? He would have no idea she wasn’t coming home for him. He’d think she just abandoned him. Who was going to love and take care of him if she didn’t make it out of this?</p><p>         Jack’s voice interrupted her morbid train of thought. “What are you thinking about, Em?”</p><p>        “Nothing…” she lied. She didn’t want to ruin their nice moment.</p><p>         “I bet I can guess,” he said challengingly.</p><p>         She smiled into his neck. “Alright, what am I thinking?”</p><p>        His fingertips grasped firmly at her hip, pushing her deeper into his lap and reveling at the familiar pressure building between them. “First of all, you’re thinking how damn good it feels to be pressed against me like this.” His kissed her jaw just under her ear.</p><p>         She giggled at his forwardness, but he wasn’t wrong. “Oh, is that so?”</p><p>         “Mhmm,” he replied. “But if I know you well, and I think I do, then you’re probably also thinking about how you wish you were home with that good boy of yours. Don’t worry though, I promised him before we left that I’d bring you back the way I found you. He knows someone’s looking out for you. Just like I knew he was looking after you when I had to leave. He’s probably having the time of his life right now. He probably invited over all his doggy friends and they’re chewing up all your shoes as we speak.”</p><p>        He always knew exactly what to say to make her feel better. She turned her face so she could see his eyes. They always managed to say so much without him ever needing to speak a word. The lines that formed around his eyes when he smiled reminded her of all the happy memories that had put them there. Those lines told entire story of a full life. A life that she hadn’t been a part of for too long. “I missed you Jack. I missed you so much.”</p><p>         “I’m sorry you ever had to…” His eyes saddened with regret.</p><p>         Sawyer was trying her best to not listen to their conversation and give them a little privacy. She needed to focus on what was in front of her. Mac’s bloodwork was showing an increased amount of white blood cells. That wasn’t surprising, considering the infection his body was already trying to fight before the toxin was introduced. The curious part was that the guards’ white blood cell counts were virtually nonexistent. The levels she was seeing mimicked that of someone who had been through extreme levels of radiation treatments but neither men showed any signs of that. All three samples displayed decreased levels in zinc as well. It was like this toxin was engineered to go in and wipe out the body’s first line of defense. Once those cells reached a certain amount of damage it was easy for the toxin to overwhelm the rest of the body. Without the white blood cells, the body had no chance of warring off foreign invaders. And without zinc, new healthy cells couldn’t be formed. Combining those effects with the thinning blood and loss of oxygenation… this was the most lethal thing she had ever seen.</p><p>         From what she could tell, this toxin was of a single mind. It was almost operating like a virus. Seek, consume, destroy, and replicate. That was the pattern. It kept repeating this until there was nothing left for it to take. Maybe she could find a way to feed it and trick it into believing it was getting what it wanted. She would have to figure out a way to trap it first though and keep it from spreading once it absorbed her bait. If she could figure out the right kind of bonding agent there was a very real chance she had just solved this riddle.</p><p>         The feeling of victory was short lived when the sounds of Emel’s screams reached her ears. “Sawyer! What’s happening?!”</p><p>         Mac was struggling for air and clutching his chest. His grip around Jack’s hand was so strong his knuckles were turning white. Jack’s appearance was a tad concerning as well. She had let him be hooked up to Mac for too long. His face was as white as a ghost and she guessed the only thing that kept him standing was Mac’s vice grip.</p><p>         “Jack, sit down!” Sawyer commanded. “You’re done. You can’t take any more.” He wanted to fight her on it but she had already withdrawn the port from his arm.</p><p>        “Mac, talk to me! Tell me what you’re feeling.” She needed as much information as possible while he was still conscious.</p><p>         Every time he drew a breath to speak a fresh wave of spasms invaded his chest. She didn’t like what she was hearing at all. The cough sounded wet and painful, and it was further restricting his ability to get oxygen. “My ch-chest hurts… can’t… breathe.”</p><p>         “Shh, it’s okay Mac. Relax. Try not to talk. I’ll fix this. I promise, I’ll fix this.” She hoped she hadn’t just lied to him.</p><p>         A wheezing gasp of her name was the last thing she heard before things really went downhill. “Saw-yer…” His hand blindly reached for her through his gurgled gasps. Bright red blood threatened to choke him with every inhale. It splattered all over his face every time a new cough took over. Sawyer pressed the rounded end of her stethoscope to his bare chest and confirmed what she already feared to be happening. His lungs were starting to fill with blood. She could hear the crackling in his chest.</p><p>         The monitor whaled out in warning. His heart rhythm was all over the place. Sawyer could feel Jack and Emel’s worry seeping off of them. The added pressure was starting to make her heart race too. She tried to focus on taking slow, steady breaths to avoid her impending panic attack. It always helped her to talk things through out loud. She thought maybe in this case it might help them too. If they knew what was going on they might be able to regain a small sense of control.</p><p>        Her stare locked in on Jack. “He’s tachycardic. His heart is working too hard. He’s having trouble catching a breath.” Mac’s piercing blue eyes lulled to the back of his head and his hand released its grip on hers. Once again, her fingers shot to his neck to search out his heartbeat. The monitor was still showing his erratic ventricular rhythm, but she felt nothing under her touch.</p><p>        “He doesn’t have a pulse!” She pointed to Emel and instructed her. “Get on his chest. Do you remember how to administer CPR?”</p><p>         Emel climbed onto Mac’s bed and straddled his lap to get a better angle. “Yes, I just got recertified last month.”</p><p>         Emel laced her fingers together and began steadily compressing Mac’s motionless chest, making sure each pump was at least two inches deep. She halted when Sawyer signaled for her to pause. Her friend was concentrating intensely on trying to insert a tube past Mac’s vocal cords.</p><p>         “Damn it! There is too much blood in the field. I can’t see anything!” She reeled.</p><p>         Emel redirected her focal point again. “Sawyer, stop! Take a beat. You don’t need to see it. You’ve done this 100 times. Feel for it.”</p><p>         Sawyer used the guided scope as far as she could and then closed her eyes. She would have to rely on intuition and muscle memory the rest of the way. She felt the tube slip into place and quickly attached the compressor bag. “Jack, come and squeeze this for me. Steady… One, two, three - squeeze. One, two, three – squeeze. Got it?” He nodded and she quickly moved to listen to Mac’s chest again. “Bilateral breath sounds. I’m in.” She pointed back to Emel. “Chest compressions, don’t stop!”</p><p>         Emel’s shoulders were starting to ache with each forward push. She wasn’t sure how much longer she would be able to do this effectively.</p><p>         Sawyer was back at their side now. She had wheeled over the crash cart and began charging the paddles. “Emel, hop down.”</p><p>         The machine hummed as its voltage reached Sawyers desired level. Jack watched her rub the conductive gel into the paddles and braced himself for what he was about to see. He dropped his hands away when he heard Sawyer yell out her warning.</p><p>         “CLEAR!”</p><p>          She pressed her fingers to his neck again. Still nothing….</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The gang is running out of time! Phoenix may show up just in the nick of time but will everyone make it out? A big shout out to all the readers who have supported this story so far. All the comments really help motivate me. And a special thanks to Sapless_Tree for inspiring a few more chapters with their awesome feedback! Keep the good stuff coming guys!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>           Sawyer was down to her last round of Epi. Mac’s heart wasn’t responding to her efforts. With every shock of the paddles, she could feel the hope rise and fall with his chest. He wouldn’t be able to take much more of this. None of them would.</p><p>            Emel’s shoulders were burning from exertion. The depth of her compressions was becoming increasingly more shallow. Frustration and desperation were consuming her. She couldn’t believe this was happening. Jack’s face had fallen into an expression that she wanted to erase from her memory forever. She had never seen him hopeless. Not even after Michael had died. Defeat was the antithesis of Jack Dalton’s spirit, but he was lost to himself as he helplessly watched Mac slipping away from him.</p><p>            Emel could feel the significance of this moment. This was a loss that would change Jack forever, and she couldn’t lose him. Not again. She had to be his hope when he couldn’t find his own. She had to be his reminder of strength. He had done it for her a thousand times before. It was her turn now. She would do whatever it took. Even if that meant enduring the excruciating fire radiating through her muscles while she pumped the heart of his best friend.</p><p>            Sawyer studied the monitor relentlessly, willing it to show her the readings she desired. She knew that was pointless. This wasn’t a magic eight ball. No amount of wishing would fix this. Mac’s last chance was resting in the palm of her shaking hand. Sawyer pushed the topper of the syringe into Mac’s IV and prepared herself for round three.</p><p>            The defibrillator hummed to life again as it charged to three hundred. Sawyer hoped that the extra joules would coax Mac’s heart into rhythm. She called out her last warning. “CLEAR!”</p><p>            The force of the shock lifted Mac’s body from the bed. His head lulled to the side and the entire world felt like it was standing still. Fear had bolted Sawyer to the ground. She tried to raise her hand to his neck, but she couldn’t move. All she could see were the faces of the patients she had lost before him. She desperately needed him not the join the expressions that haunted her dreams.</p><p>            “Doc…?” Jack begged.</p><p>            Right on cue, Mac’s long eyelashes started to flutter, and the most comforting sound Sawyer had ever heard echoed through the room. “Normal sinus rhythm! He’s back!”</p><p>            Before she even had a chance to register her joy, Jack had scooped her up in a crushing hug. Her feet dangled above the ground as he swayed her back and forth. “Thank you, Sawyer. Thank you…”</p><p>            She would have hugged him back, but her arms were pinned to her side. The surprised giggle he squeezed from her chest would have to be enough. “You’re welcome big guy.” She waited patiently for him to release her, but he was still clinging to her. “Jack…?”</p><p>            “Yeah, Doc?” He responded obliviously.</p><p>            “Can you put me down now?”</p><p>            Emel laughed from behind them. This was the perfect representation of their two vastly different personalities. Jack expressed himself in big ways. His heart was so big that his body couldn’t always contain his emotions, and they would spill out onto the people around him. Sawyer was the opposite. She didn’t project, she absorbed. That’s why she kept to herself so much. That level of empathy was exhausting for her. But it seemed like no matter how hard she tried to hide people always sought her out. Emel wasn’t even sure if people were aware they were doing it. Sawyer was just the kind of person you wanted to tell things to. You trusted her with the darkest parts of yourself and found yourself needing to know her opinions.</p><p>            The contrast between the two was comical. Emel could see Sawyer’s discomfort level climbing so she came to her aid. “Jack you’re crushing her. Not everyone likes that as much as I do.”</p><p>            Sawyer’s feet didn’t have a chance to hit the ground before a pained choking sound came from Mac’s direction. Jack dropped her immediately. “Why’s he making that sound?”</p><p>            Jack didn’t understand the smile that he found on Sawyer’s face. Mac was struggling, it didn’t make any sense for her to look happy about it. Maybe the stress had finally beat her and she was having some kind of manic meltdown…</p><p>            Sawyer answered his questions, spoken and unspoken with her response. “He’s fighting the intubation.” Jack still looked confused, so she explained further. “That’s a good thing. It means he’s breathing over the tube. He’s breathing on his own.”</p><p>            Emel had taken over squeezing the bag for Jack. She looked down to see two panicked circles of steel blue begging her for help. “What do I do? Should I stop?”</p><p>            Sawyer eased the bag from Emel’s hands and stepped into Mac’s line of vision. Her adept fingers unscrewed the bag from the tube while she assured him of the next steps. “I’m going to take this out now. When I start to pull, I need you to cough as much as you can. Understand?”</p><p>            Mac’s eyes blinked free the tears that were clouding his vision and he nodded in understanding. He felt her start to pull on the tube lodged in his throat. It was the most unsettling feeling he had ever experienced but he held strong until the last bit of the tube was extracted. It still hurt to breathe but it sure as hell beat having that thing shoved down his windpipe. His entire body was in pain. His head was throbbing, his muscles strained, and he could feel the beginnings of a deep bruise forming on his sternum. After his coughing fit had finally subsided, he only had the energy for one word. “Oww.”</p><p>            Jack responded with a relieved, nervous chuckle. “Alright Mac, that’s enough dying for today. Everybody needs a break.”</p><p>            Emel squeezed Mac’s hand to draw his attention. “I second that.”</p><p>            Mac returned her kind smile with an exhausted one of his own. It was comforting to be surrounded by their warmth, but his eyes quickly began scanning his surroundings. Emel knew he was looking for Sawyer. His grip on her hand tightened when he didn’t find what he was looking for.</p><p>            “She’s right here Mac. Just give her a minute.” Emel watched with sympathy as stress overpowered Sawyer’s shaken body. She was hunched over, emptying the contents of her stomach into a nearby trashcan.</p><p>            “Doc, you all good?” Jack asked.</p><p>            Sawyer gathered herself and fought down the remaining urges to purge the rest of her anxiety. She hated getting sick like this because she had no sense of control. Her body commanded her instead of the other way around. The only thing she hated more was how exposed she felt right now. Everyone was watching her. Vulnerability was something she wasn’t comfortable with, and there was nothing more vulnerable than her undignified state at the moment.</p><p>            She was even more mortified when she felt someone crouch down next to her. She assumed it was Jack, but to her shock and horror, she found herself face to face with Silas. After everything she had seen him do today, the appropriate reaction to him should have been fear. He killed two of her friends and was forcing her to help him profit off the murder of millions of American citizens. He was detestable, but there was something in his eyes right now that disarmed her. It wasn’t pity; it was understanding. He recognized her inner battles as his own and extended himself uncharacteristically. He handed her the handkerchief from his jacket pocket so she could clean herself up. When she accepted, however reluctantly, he passed her a bottle of water and a stick of gum. He didn’t linger to gloat or threaten her to hurry. He simply walked back to his seat and continued on as if nothing had ever happened.</p><p>            This was the problem with Silas. He was totally certifiable and malevolent on most days, but he had rare moments of human connection. That’s what made him so dangerous. He wasn’t all monster, there was a man inside him too. But you never knew which he would choose to indulge. That’s how he was able to fly in under Sawyer’s radar in the first place. She knew better now than to trust him at face value but getting these glimpses helped her to understand him better. Maybe understanding him would help her unravel him. He was the cause of every calamity in her life right now and she wanted him undone for it.</p><p>            Sawyer put her plans for vengeance on the back burner and approached her friends with all the poise and control she could muster. Emel and Jack’s expressions mirrored each other’s but she waved off their concern. Her weakness was at the bottom of the list where priorities were concerned. She had shifted into autopilot, letting her instincts to distance herself take over. She needed to focus on what she could control, and that was the science. Emel and Jack had the emotional stuff covered. She was the only one who could do this part now. Mac was too far gone to assist. She walked past the group and settled herself at her lab station. This is where she needed to be for herself, for Mac, and for all the other people that this would destroy if she didn’t solve this equation.</p><p>            Emel eyed Sawyer cautiously. She knew her tendencies and warning signs, and her behavior now was a major red flag. She had to close the gap her friend was trying to create. She approached her so that only the two of them could hear. “Sawyer…I think you should come check in with Mac. He’s looking for you.”</p><p>            Sawyer shook her head discouragingly. “I can’t. There’s no time Emel. He doesn’t need me to hold his hand. He has Jack for that. He needs me to figure this out. He needs me to stop this from killing him, and I can’t do that if I get distracted. I’m too involved.”</p><p>            Emel took a harsh tone with her friend. Sometimes she needed a stern awakening. “Too involved… Heaven forbid you let yourself be emotionally invested in anyone other than me. Let’s go ahead and call this what it is Sawyer. You’re hiding, and that’s not fair. It isn’t fair to you and it isn’t fair to Mac. He trusts you and he needs to know you’re still here. So, do what you need to do to pull it together and get back over there. I’m not going to let you do this again. I won’t watch idly while you close yourself off. I know it scares you, and it raises the stakes when you care this much. But it also makes you better in every aspect.”</p><p>            Sawyer’s stubborn resolve was waning. Control was spiraling away from her again as the tears dripped down her cheeks. She needed her friend to guide her through this one. “Emel, what if I can’t save him? What will I do if he dies? The weight of that is too much. The more attached I get, the more daunting the idea seems. I won’t be able to handle it. Not just for myself, but for Jack. What if I can’t fix this for Jack?”</p><p>            Honesty was the best policy with Sawyer. It always made her angry when someone placated her. “That would wreck us all Sawyer, but you are not responsible for everyone else’s pain. Stop putting that kind of pressure on yourself. You can’t always fix everything for people, but right now you can do something for Mac that Jack and I can’t do. You can walk him through this and reassure him that you still have a plan. Give him something to hold on to. How are you going to feel if you don’t and he dies anyway?”</p><p>            Sawyer knew she was right, but she still didn’t like it. It would be easier to focus if she weren’t so worried about him. It would be easier if she didn’t care so much. Unfortunately, she had already crossed that line. It was too late. She cared about him. She cared a lot.</p><p>            She took Emel’s outstretched hand and walked back over to Mac’s side. Seeing his face was her undoing. There was no turning back now. She was all in. She smiled at him and held his hand in hers. “You’re a fighter, you know that? I thought you were going to quit on me for a second there.”</p><p>            His thumb brushed soothingly along her wrist. “We still have work to do.”</p><p>            The way he was looking at her made her feel seen. Not in a way that scared her, but in a way that made her feel known. He wanted to be near her, but he also wanted her to know that he was still in this with her. He still had complete faith in her to finish this. The thought of her failing hadn’t even crossed his mind.</p><p>            Sawyer took a breath and braced herself. “I think I almost figured it out. It’s targeting the body’s first lines of defense. The new blood samples showed a complete lack of white blood cells and zinc. It looks like it is feeding off them like a virus would. My hypothesis was expulsion from the system using a baiting agent, but…”</p><p>            Mac’s tired voice picked up where she left off. “You would need something to bind the toxin to the bait so it can’t just absorb it and move on.”</p><p>            “Exactly, but nothing I have tried so far has worked. None of the compounds have been able to withstand the toxicity.”</p><p>            Mac’s thoughts were sluggish, but the ideas were slowly forming in his brain. “What if you poisoned the poison?” The plan in his head was a lot more complex than that but he was so tired. Putting words together was a feat. He was hoping this was enough for her to understand.</p><p>            Sawyer let the idea swirl around for a minute. He was onto something. “Poison the poison. I would need to bind the bait to something that debilitates the toxin. Once it was isolated, we would be able to administer drugs to counteract the bleeding. With transfusions and time, the body would start to replenish the depleted supplies and the liver and kidneys would flush the toxin from the body.”</p><p>           Mac couldn’t open his eyes to look at her anymore, but he could hear the triumph in her voice. Pride washed over him and pulled the corners of his mouth into a smile. He hummed in satisfaction when he felt her lips brush against his cheek. “You’re a genius, Mac!”</p><p>            Sawyer rushed to her lab station. She needed to transform this from theory to reality. Her first two attempts didn’t hold up against the toxin, but she was a firm believer in the third time being the charm. Inspiration had struck. She knew before she even introduced her agent into the blood sample that this would work. Her eyes fixated on the cells through the lens of her microscope. “We did it! Mac, we did it! You were right.”</p><p>            Her excitement was cut short with the sounds of rapid gunfire in the distance. One look at Jack’s face told her exactly who it was. The Phoenix team had found them. Their luck was taking a turn for the better. Maybe they would all make it out of this after all.</p><p>            Silas was genuinely surprised by their visitors. This wasn’t something he had anticipated so there was no plan b. Dr. Price was on the cusp of her discovery and he hadn’t come this far to let it all slip through his fingers.</p><p>            Jack was on his toes and ready for whatever came next. A newfound energy surged through him. His people were here to back him up. He could hear Silas barking orders to his lackies, trying to form an escape plan. Jack scoffed at the idea. There was no way in hell they were getting past the Phoenix TAC team heading their way. Even if a couple of them managed to get out, this whole thing would have been a failure. Silas didn’t get to finish his evil genius master plan.</p><p>            No sooner than Jack had finished his thought, Silas made an alarmingly quick advance and hauled Sawyer over his shoulder. She kicked and screamed as hard as she could but there was no overpowering him. She was going to go wherever he decided to take her. “That’s our cue, Dr. Price. Time to go!” He turned to face Jack and Emel. “I’m afraid this is where we must bid you ado Jack Dalton. None of this was personal. I actually quite like you both. Especially you…” He winked at Emel. “I hope you understand why it has to end this way.”</p><p>            Silas turned abruptly on his heel and readjusted his grip on Sawyer. She would undoubtedly be bruised from her struggle, but she didn’t care. She was doing anything and everything in her power to stop this. She had figured it all out. Mac’s miracle answer was at her disposal, but she wasn’t able to give it to him before Silas gathered her up like one of his possessions.</p><p>            The sudden commotion had startled Mac awake. His relief at the familiar sounds of the TAC team closing in on their position quickly dissipated as the sounds of Sawyer’s screams reached his ears. Panic quickened his heart and his hand clamped down on Jack’s wrist. His piercing blue eyes beseeched Jack with every ounce of strength he had left in him. “Jack don’t let him take her. We can’t let him take her!”</p><p>            Jack could feel Emel at his side, and he registered it the moment she made the decision to chase after her friend. He grabbed a hold of her before she had a chance to move. “Don’t even think about Em! I need you to stay here with Mac. I’ll protect yours if you protect mine. Deal?”</p><p>           The terms of his deal seemed to agree with her, and he let go of his hold on her arm. He turned to run after the fleeting backs of Silas and Sawyer when he smacked into Dante. The sneer he wore plastered on his face did not bode well. This dude was standing in the way of Jack getting to Sawyer and there wasn’t time for that. Jack had already calculated his next three moves to lay this guy flat, but he was never given the opportunity to use them.</p><p>           An unimaginable pain shot through Jack’s body, rendering him useless. He hit the ground before he could even register what was happening. It was a similar sensation as before when Silas used the barbaric tool implanted in his neck, but the intensity was magnified tenfold. He could see through squinted eyes that Dante was holding the controls.</p><p>           Jack’s agonizing screams brought Emel to her knees. Nothing she did was helping him. She couldn’t even break through the pain long enough to comfort him. His screams persisted as his body contorted on the concrete floor.</p><p>           “GaaaAAAAAAAHHHHH!” Jack’s voiced boomed through the room. In between the screams came inconsolable sobs. The sounds motivated Mac from his recumbent position. If he could get himself up and to his partner, maybe he could find a way to make it stop.</p><p>           Emel couldn’t take it anymore. The sounds of his cries would be seared into her memory forever. “Jack hold on!”</p><p>           Her fury propelled her forward from the floor and she charged herself into a cackling Dante. He had been so focused on his revenge that he left himself open for a strike. She barreled into him with ease, knocking him to the ground and sending the cellphone sliding across the floor. She fought him tooth and nail, scratching at his eyes and twisting every appendage she could get her hands on.</p><p>          Dropping the phone hadn’t been enough to stop the assault on Jack’s nervous system. The stress on his body was so high that his nose had started to bleed. His screams were starting to sound more ragged as his voice gave out on him from all the friction to his vocal cords. The spastic jerking of his spine was bound to cause a serious injury if he didn’t find relief soon.</p><p>           Mac saw this as his opportunity. He gathered the last remaining reserves of energy coursing through his body and swung his legs off the bed. His hands reached out and grabbed on to his IV pole to support his weight. Slowly but surely, he inched his way to the crash cart where Sawyer had left the defibrillator. If he could manage to adjust the rhythms and voltages exactly right, he may be able to disrupt the signal Silas’ implant was sending into Jack’s brain.</p><p>          He managed to pry open the machine and expose the wires he needed. Any other time he would have made quick work with a project like this, but his fingers were shaking, and his eyes kept coming in and out of focus. His blurry vision was the least of his problems when he felt his knees start to give out from under him. His body fell forward, sending the defibrillator crashing down with him. His body’s unwillingness to go on standing may have turned out to be his saving grace. Laying on the floor allowed him to focus less energy on standing and let him concentrate long enough to finish connecting the last few wires. Now all he had to do was get to Jack.</p><p>          The sound of Emel’s struggle with Dante urged Mac on. She was holding her own quite impressively but she wouldn’t be able to overpower him forever. Mac’s only chance was to reach Jack before Dante could do anything about it. He dragged himself and the paddles across the floor to Jack. The screams were disorienting to Mac as he tried to gather enough wherewithal to zap his friend. The placement had to be perfect and that wasn’t going to be easy considering Jack’s writhing movements. Mac managed to lift his arms high enough to reach the spots on Jack’s upper back and the base of his neck. He knew Jack wouldn’t be able to hear him, but he felt the need to apologize anyway. “I’m sorry, man. I don’t have a choice.”</p><p>           The shock silenced Jack. His body went stiff and Mac started to worry that his calculations were off, but then Jack’s body relaxed in a pile on the floor. Mac checked him for a pulse and found it beating strongly beneath his fingertips. He could hear the labored breaths heaving in and out of his longs as he tried to replenish his oxygen supply. He was okay, but there wasn’t time for rest.</p><p>          Mac looked up to see Emel being thrown to the ground by a maddened Dante. He kicked her twice in the gut for good measure to make sure that she stayed down. His eyes searched the floor for the discarded cellphone so that he could get back to the task at hand. He lumbered toward it and Mac knew time was running out. It wouldn’t take Dante long to notice the device was no longer working. Mac cried out to rouse his friend. “Jack get up!” He shook his arm feebly. “Wake up Jack. You have to move. You have to ge….” Mac’s warning trailed off as he lost consciousness.</p><p>          Jack could barely hear anything over the sound of his own heartbeat. If it weren’t for the feeling of Mac’s weak grip at this his elbow, he may have given into the blackout that was threatening to overtake him. His eyelids snapped open when his brain started reminding him of the events leading up to the blinding pain. Sawyer was in trouble and he had promised Emel… Oh God, where was Em?!</p><p>          His eyes landed on her before they registered Dante. The anger boiled in his blood when he saw her clutching her side and nursing a bloodied lip. When Dante came into focus a few feet away, Jack’s anger focused on its target. His legs shook from exhaustion, but he lifted himself from the ground and squared his shoulders in Dante’s direction. Nothing this prick did now would prevent Jack from ending him. These were the last breaths he’d be taking.</p><p>          Dante’s arrogant smirk came crashing off his face as he pushed the controls for Jack’s implant. Jack was unaffected and still making his way right to him. Recognition hit as he took in Jack’s determined expression. He dropped the phone and fumbled in the waistline of his pants for his gun. The only option now was kill or be killed.</p><p>          Emel watched in horror as Dante pulled his gun free. She didn’t have time to think about it. All she knew was that Jack dying today was not an option. She hurled herself forward again in an attempt to shield him. “Jack look out!”</p><p>           Her hands wrapped around the barrel of the gun and they both went tumbling to the floor again. She just had to stall long enough for Jack to get to her. She redirected the opening of the gun just in time to avoid the first shot he fired. Seconds later, Jack was yanking her backwards away from harm. Dante fired another shot, but Jack’s hands were so quick. He had diverted his aim and disarmed him all with one concise motion. It was over. There was nothing left standing in his way now. Jack’s firm grip on Dante’s neck tightened as he twisted in one harsh movement.</p><p>            He looked over to Emel to find her staring at him in disbelief. These were the types of things that he never wanted her to see. He stood up to walk towards her but paused when her hands pulled away from her stomach covered in an alarming amount of fresh blood. The confused look in her eyes broke his heart.</p><p>          “Jack…?” she whispered.</p><p>          He reached her just in time to lower her gently to the ground and cradle her to his chest. “Oh God, Em… What did I do? What did I do? Please forgive me. Please baby…”</p><p>          His hands pressed down over hers, desperately trying to slow the bleeding. Jack had seen these kinds of wounds before in Afghanistan. There wasn’t much else he could do. She needed medical attention immediately, and the one person who could help was gone because he had failed to protect her. Because of that failure he was going to lose Em now too.</p><p>        Her soft voice begged for his attention. “Jack…this is bad, isn’t it?”</p><p>       The look in her eyes told him that she knew what was likely going to happen to her. He wouldn’t insult her by lying. “Yeah darlin’, it’s bad. But I’ve seen worse.”</p><p>        She was scared and having him close was the only thing consoling her, but it was already too late for her. Sawyer needed him and he still had time to get to her. Saving Sawyer would save thousands. “Ja-ack… you need to go. F-find…Sawyer.”</p><p>           He shook his head vehemently. “There is not a chance in hell I’m leaving you.”</p><p>           Her brows furrowed in frustration. She would only have the willpower to ask him to go for so long. “We ha-had a deal, Dalton. Mac needs you to find her too. Please…”</p><p>           Jack’s eyes snapped up at the mention of Mac’s name. He was laying about ten feet away from them and he was eerily still. Jack couldn’t control the sobs now. How had this day ended up this way? If he wouldn’t have placed his selfish desire to see Emel over the needs of the people he loved, then none of this would have ever happened. Emel would be at home safe in her bed, and Mac would be complaining about spending the night in a Phoenix med bay. Everything about this day was his fault.</p><p>           He looked back down at Emel’s expectant face and started to openly weep. “I can’t baby. I’m sorry… I can’t.”</p><p>           The pain in her abdomen had started to fade away. It gave her a new strength to focus on Jack. He was always the one person who could comfort her. Her mind started to wonder back through all the years with him. He had been taking her pain away since she was a little girl. Every time things got bad, he found a way to make them better again. Or at the very least, distract her until the scary parts were over. One vivid memory from their childhood kept coming to her mind. It was the first time she realized he had this super power. She had fallen off her horse and broken her arm. Michael ran for help and Jack stayed with her. He held her similarly to how he was holding her now and started singing to take her mind away from her throbbing arm. She smiled at the memory. Maybe the same thing would help him now.</p><p>           Her shaky voice reached his ears, and he recognized the melody immediately. He couldn’t believe she remembered that. It was so long ago, but he could recall it like it was yesterday. She was scared, so he tried the first thing he could think of to make her feel better. He shook his head at her. She never stopped surprising him. She was the one dying and here she was trying to make sure he felt okay. “Em, hush. I need to keep you here as long as I can. Save your energy hunny.”</p><p>           She flashed him a smile that sent a blow to his gut and made it impossible for him to deny her anything. “Come on Jack, don’t be such a prude. Sing it with me.”</p><p>           He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to hers. If this was all she wanted, he would gladly give it to her. “Off the Florida Keys, there’s a place called Kokomo… That’s where you wanna go to get away from it all…Bodies in the sand, tropical drink melting in your hand… We’ll be falling in love to the rhythm of a steel drum band… Down in Kokomo.”</p><p>          She hummed into his chest. “Mmm, don’t stop. I love this song.”</p><p>          His tears were dripping down onto the top of her head leaving a damp spot in her hair. “Aruba, Jamaica, of I want to take you to Bermuda, Bahama… Come on pretty mama…”</p><p>          She had stopped singing along with him and he could feel her body relax. “No, no, no, no! Come on Em. Don’t do this to me. Don’t leave me! I won’t survive this sweetheart. I’m begging you.”</p><p>          Jack was rocking her back and forth in his lap trying to coax her awake. His whole world was ending tonight. If Emel and Mac were gone, he wanted to go with them.</p><p>          The only possible thing that could have changed his mind came busting into the room at the exact moment he needed her. Riley…</p><p>           “JACK!” She yelled out for him.</p><p>            He couldn’t answer her. Shock was starting to set in. He was only conscious long enough to register the rest of the TAC team flood in behind her. The last thing he remembered before falling into the darkness was Riley hunched over Mac and declaring that he was still alive…  </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>           The next twenty-four hours were the longest of Jack’s life. He couldn’t eat even though his body begged him. Sleep was entirely out of the question. Even drawing a breath was a struggle. His mind was consumed in a torturous limbo between grief and hope. He was surrounded by voices offering him solace but he couldn’t reach out to grab on. Soon they all faded into nothing just like everything else. He was lost to the world. The only thing still in focus was the feeling of her tiny hand resting in his.</p>
<p>            He could still feel the warmth beneath her skin, and the soft thud of her pulse tapping against the palm of his hand. He couldn’t bring himself glance at her face anymore. Every time his eyes scanned over her helpless, expressionless features, all he could see was the uncertainty of her future. Tsunami sized waves of fresh guilt and grief would pull him under, leaving him lost in the depths of the rigid waters. The only thing helping him resurface being the warm pressure of her delicate fingers still fighting to grip onto his. That’s where his focus remained. Anything outside of that was too much for him to bear.</p>
<p>            The intensity of his devoted focus to the spot that still connected them was the reason he didn’t see her groggy eyes start to blink open. She could feel his presence by her side. Even through her addled, comatose state she could feel someone was there with her. Never abandoning her and offering strength they didn’t have to spare. She knew without question it was Jack. It was always Jack and it would always be Jack.</p>
<p>            She followed the sensation of his calloused hand clutching onto hers. She found him with her body before settling on him with her eyes. The man that sat at her bedside looked like the ghost of the man she once knew. Every detail on his face looked raw and painful. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot with exhaustion. She noticed how puffy they looked but at the same time, sunken in and casting dark circles under his lashes. His lips were dry and broken, reflecting the agonizing cracks forming in his psyche. She hardly recognized him. This pale comparison to the man she loved made her doubt the validity of his presence. Maybe she wanted him to be with her so badly that she had somehow imagined him to sooth herself. She never was very good at using her imagination. She always preferred the real thing.</p>
<p>            Seeing this version of him was too painful. She would rather be terrified and alone than to see him suffer for one more second. She had to do something to convince her fragile mind that this wasn’t really her Jack. She had to will herself to let him go.</p>
<p>            Emel reached out with the hand that was free from Jack’s embrace and touched her fingers to his lips. She half expected for them to pass right through him, sending him fading away from her. But instead, she felt the heat from his breath brush against her palm. A mixture of hope and confusion colored her senses. Could it be…?</p>
<p>            “Jack?” Her voice was barely audible to her own ears.</p>
<p>            Two pools of the richest brown she had ever seen searched out desperately in response to her whisper. Disbelief overtook him when he finally managed to pull his gaze away from their clasped hands.</p>
<p>            He was on his feet in seconds, every inch of him aching to be as close to her as possible. His strong hands enveloped her face, and he fixed his gaze on hers. He searched every contour of her beauty, searching for the answers that his heart dared to hope for. Was she really here with him?</p>
<p>           He leaned in closer, the tip of his nose hovering just above hers. His question came out in a whimper. “Em?” He needed more proof. His mind had been gifting him with this illusion for hours now. “Is this real?”</p>
<p>            Emel’s heart shattered into a million pieces at the look of despair in his eyes. Tears flooded down her face, saturating Jack’s waiting fingers. He was real. He was touching her. She wasn’t imagining his pain. Her hands clamped down around his wrists effectively holding him to her. She held on to him for dear life as she sobbed into his palms. His touch was the only thing grounding her to the here and now. “Jack… don’t let go.”  </p>
<p>            “Oh, hunny trust me. I’m not going anywhere.” Very gently, he shifted her weight and climbed into the bed next to her. Like they had done so many times before, their bodies melted into one another finding relief wrapped around each other.</p>
<p>            Emel’s fingers clung to the material of his soft t-shirt as she buried her face in his chest. The feeling of his body beside her was something that she had been longing for ever since the day he walked out away from her all those years ago. Her imagination truly was shit. This was so much better. She was absorbing every drop of affection he was offering her and trying to commit it to memory. The way his chest felt beneath her cheek. The way his skin smelled of pine and earth. The sensation of his rough hands rubbing over her soft skin. She needed to remember this. Just in case…</p>
<p>            Being this close to him was almost enough to make her forget everything except the two of them. Nothing else mattered until she noticed his freshly bandaged ankle resting at the foot of their bed. Then she remembered…</p>
<p>            “Jack, what happened? How am I here with you?” She tried her best to hide the fear in her voice. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to hear the answers to all the questions she was too afraid to ask.</p>
<p>            Jack’s breath hitched in his chest. He knew he would have to burden her with the circumstances eventually, but he was hoping it wouldn’t be until they had a little bit of good news to go along with the bad. “You were shot, and it was all my fault. I knew you were still standing too close. I shouldn’t have let him get another round off.” His pause was loaded with the intensity of his emotions. “I almost lost you.”</p>
<p>           The memories started to flood in all at once and her panic registered on the monitors beside the bed. She wasn’t the only one Jack might have lost that night. Her chest tightened at the possibility. She had to ask but she couldn’t bring herself to finish her inquiry. “Is Mac…?”</p>
<p>           Jack’s entire body went rigid. The thought of his best friend’s fate was something that had been torturing him relentlessly. This moment with Emel was the only reprieve he had found. He wasn’t ready to face it again. “He’s alive, but barely. And the doctors aren’t optimistic. They said there is nothing else that they can do.”</p>
<p>            Emel’s heart raced as she took in all the information. This didn’t make any sense. “What doctors? What does Sawyer say? She said she figured it out. I don’t understand what went wrong.” Her eyebrows scrunched together as she tried to decipher the mystery. “Just give her more time. She will find the answer. She always finds the answer.”</p>
<p>            Jack’s silence was starting to scare her. She lifted her head so she could get a better look at his face. He was worried. “Talk to me, Jack. You’re starting to scare me.”</p>
<p>            Reluctantly, Jack told her the information he had been dreading. “The Phoenix showed up just in time to get you and Mac out of there alive. Russ, my boss, has a lot of pull so he was able to set you both up at a private facility and fly in teams of specialists. He found the best surgeons in the world and flew them into Jersey. Without him, you wouldn’t be alive right now. And Mac… well, he would be gone too. Russ has a research team pouring over all of Sawyer’s notes from her lab. They were able to figure out enough to keep him alive, but she didn’t have a chance to write it all down before she…”</p>
<p>            “Before she what, Jack? Where is she? You got her back from Silas, right?” Her voice was climbing in pitch.</p>
<p>            Jack couldn’t look at her, he was too ashamed. “I couldn’t Em. I had to make a choice. I couldn’t leave you like that. If I had to do it all over again, I’d do exactly the same thing.”</p>
<p>            Fear was creeping up Emel’s throat, masquerading as anger and prompting her to lash out. “You let him take her!? Jack, how could you do that? You promised me. You promised you would protect her! You should have just let me go. She was more important, Jack!”</p>
<p>            Jack held on tight as she tried to push him away from her. It didn’t take long for her anger to turn into tears. He wrapped her in his arms as securely as he could and kissed the top of her head. “That’s not how I saw it, sweetheart. You’re pretty damn important from where I sit.”</p>
<p>            Her response was like a punch to the gut. “Do you think Mac would see it that way? Or how about Sawyer? Think she would be cool with just being abandoned and left to try and survive all alone? And if not Mac and Sawyer, what about all those people that Silas plans on sacrificing? You’re a soldier Jack. You know how combat works. You don’t go to the most wounded first. You help the ones that have the best chance. That was Sawyer in this situation, and you know it!”</p>
<p>            Moisture was collecting at the corners of his eyes. The weight of her words was too much. He had already been telling himself all the same things. The guilt was overwhelming. He had let her down and all but signed Mac’s death certificate. He wasn’t strong enough to deny his selfish urges to keep her. It was ironic that the very thing he did to save her life made him unworthy of being with her.</p>
<p>           Emel was so in tune with the way Jack’s mind worked that she could read every thought that bounced around his head. Her voice softened the next time she spoke. “I’m sorry. I know this wasn’t your fault. You would do anything for me. You always have, and I love you for it. Selfishly, I was glad that you were there with me, but we were both wrong. I should have pushed harder for you to go but I was weak.”</p>
<p>           “Em, you were dying. I hardly think anyone is going to hold it against you.”</p>
<p>            She shook her head. “Maybe not, but they should. I do…”</p>
<p>            Jack squeezed her in his harms. “I’m going to fix this. I’m going to get her back safe, and then she can give Mac her magic potion and everything will be fine. I can fix this…”</p>
<p>            “But how, Jack? Where would you even start? I’m sure Silas has some super-secret creepy lair that he slithered back to.”</p>
<p>            An unexpected voice from the doorway captured both of their attention. “I think I can help with that.”</p>
<p>            Riley. Jack was instantly relieved. She was always finding ways to clean up after him. He sat up from Emel’s bed and swung his legs around so he could stand. Riley was wearing her serious face and he wanted to be ready for his marching orders.</p>
<p>            Riley approached the couple and opened her laptop to show them what she discovered. “I was able to hack that implant that the doctor pulled out of your neck, Jack. Mac fried it to smithereens, but it was still transmitting a signal. I scanned the area for similar frequencies and got a hit. The rest of Silas’ goon squad still have their chips. I traced the signals.”</p>
<p>            A fire was lit in Jack’s gut. “Ri, are you telling me that you know exactly where they are right now?”</p>
<p>            She confirmed. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”</p>
<p>            Jack scanned over all the information Riley had pulled up for him on her screen. They weren’t that far away. With the Phoenix resources, they could be beating down Silas’ door in no time. “We gotta loop in Matty and get this party started.”</p>
<p>            Another voice sounded from behind them. Matty’s commanding presence filled the room. “I’ve already got you a team, Dalton. You’re wheels up in thirty…” She smiled at him triumphantly. “Now let’s go get this son of a bitch and save our boy.”</p>
<p>            Jack looked back at Emel when he felt her squeeze his hand. There was a lot hiding behind her expression, but the overwhelming urgency was a pleading encouragement. He needed to do this for all of them.</p>
<p>            Silas had no idea of the sleeping giant he had just awakened…</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you all for continuing to read! I apologize for the delay in updating. Life got a little demanding. As always, thank you for your support. The comments are so appreciated. It really helps propel me forward. How is everyone feeling about the direction this has taken? Any thoughts or guesses on where you see it going next? I'd love to hear from you &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>            A steady hum emanated from the fluorescent lights that lined the hallway separating the rooms Jack stood torn between. Em was awake, and his first instinct was to spend every possible second by her side until they literally had to drag him away to get on that plane. On the other hand, there was an equally strong compulsion urging him to say goodbye to the man he had come to see as his own.</p>
<p>            Jack hadn’t been able to bring himself to face him. He was yet to step inside Mac’s room. It had been three days since the Phoenix had rescued them. Three long, torturous days of being the only one that had come out relatively unscathed. Three sleepless nights of uncertainty and all-consuming rage. Seventy-two hours of shameful cowardice leaving Jack feeling unworthy to even be in Mac’s presence. The kid was barely hanging on. Jack had made sure to get constant and thorough updates on Mac’s condition every step of the way. The doctors informed him of every excruciating detail, slowly depleting the last remnants of hope with each report.</p>
<p>            Jack’s mind had painted him a vivid picture of what Mac must look like right now. And he knew that however dire the circumstance his brain showed him, reality would be so much worse. The second he walked into that room this would all be real. He would have to face all the possibilities and the consequences head on, and he wasn’t sure if he was ready to do that.</p>
<p>            Matty’s all knowing voice broke through his agony and directed his focus to her. “Dalton, this isn’t over yet. We still have time. Do you understand me? He still has time… This is where we grin and bear it. This is the moment where we cling to our purpose and do something. We can’t let this all be for not when we still have a chance to change the outcome.”</p>
<p>            Jack shook his head and sniffed back the tears trying to overtake him. He needed to pull it together. She was right, this wasn’t over. If he had anything to say about it, Silas would meet his comeuppance. That part he could handle. He could dial in his rage and focus on nothing else except completing that mission. For the rest, well for that part he would need faith. Faith that Mac would be the fighter he’s always been. Faith that the doctors would continue their vigilance. But most of all, faith that he was handing this over to something bigger than himself.</p>
<p>            That last realization steadied him and for the first time in days he was able to get a full breath. A burden had been lifted and a flicker of the hope that had been stolen was reignited. They still had time…</p>
<p>            Jack’s eyes met Matty’s with a new determination. “Where do we start?”</p>
<p>            Excitement pounded in Matty’s chest. This was the Jack she knew and had been trying to find for days now. “We start with me letting you off your leash. Do what needs to be done Jack, protocol be damned. There won’t be any interference from me. You’re leading this one. I trust your discernment. Tell me what you need and I’ll make it happen.”</p>
<p>            Riley had quietly made her way to his side. “Same here, Jack. I’m all in. I can have my rig packed and ready to go in less than five minutes. I’m with you.”</p>
<p>            “Absolutely not.” He turned to face her. “I know you are always here to back me up, and I love you for it. Which is exactly why I don’t want you anywhere near this one. I need you here, completely out of harms way.” Jack could read her face like a book. He knew she was getting ready to protest so he said the only thing that he knew would keep her planted. “I need you here with Mac…”</p>
<p>            Riley conceded immediately. “I can do that. I won’t leave his side, I promise. But I can also be your eyes from here. Whatever it takes, right?”</p>
<p>            He nodded to her in adoration before turning back to Matty. “I think we should keep this one small. Extraction only. I know you said you already put together a team for me, but I don’t want anything big and flashy spooking this guy. He’s too unpredictable. We can’t leave anything to chance. The Doc needs to be our main priority. We can send a clean up team after Silas later.”</p>
<p>            Riley spoke up with concern. “How small are we talking here Jack? You need to have someone in there looking out for you. There is only so much I can do to help over comms.”</p>
<p>            “She’s right Jack,” Matty agreed.</p>
<p>            “Four people. Two exfil specialists, a medic and a pilot. I shouldn’t need more than that,” Jack assured them.</p>
<p>            A familiar English accent joined their conversation. “I believe I fit the bill in two separate categories. I’d be happy to assist.”</p>
<p>            Jack felt his shoulders tense with the arrival of their boss. A lot had changed at the Phoenix while Jack was away, the most significant of which being the presence of Russ Taylor. Jack had only ever known Russ by his rather infamous reputation before this. He still wasn’t sure he was completely on board with Russ’ involvement, but he had to admit that he did have a certain skillset that could prove useful in helping Mac. Jack felt a twinge of guilt when the thought crossed his mind that Russ would be the perfect person to recruit as his number two because he would be less likely to concern himself with the man’s safety. It wouldn’t be like when he was in the field with Mac, constantly needing to have eyes on him like a parent with an adventurous kid on a crowded playground. He had enough trust in Russ’ capability to feel he had a little back up, but his ambivalence toward his new boss would allow him to have a single focus.</p>
<p>            Matty seemed to like the idea as well. “That could work. Jack, what do you think?”</p>
<p>            He appreciated that she deferred to him for the decision. “I think we could use your exfil knowledge, but I don’t want to rely on you or me to pilot us home. It’s too risky. We need someone we can leave with the chopper.”</p>
<p>            Russ nodded in agreement. “Right. Well, I will procure us a pilot. And I think I will add one to our number of medics. Following your line of reasoning, I think it would be beneficial to have a field medic with us and one left behind with the exfil pilot. Wouldn’t you say?”</p>
<p>            Jack recognized the subtle attempt to establish an authority, but he brushed it off. It wasn’t going to be that easy for Russ to gain that position. He’d have to prove himself a few times over before they even got to trust, let alone respect. That being said, Jack recognized a decent idea when he saw it. He set aside his pride and agreed. “Yeah, fine. Another medic. Whatever.”</p>
<p>            Russ offered up a tight-lipped smile before he went on his way. With the formation of their team well in the works, there were only a few things left for Jack to handle. “Matty, I’m going to need some extra fire power on this one. I won’t have Mac there to improvise our way out of tough spots. I’ll have to do it my way and that usually means more bullets.”</p>
<p>            “Give me ten minutes. You’ll have your pick.” Matty reached out and squeezed his hand before walking away from him.</p>
<p>            Riley was the only one left in front of him now. He could tell she wasn’t completely content with the plan, but she was following his lead. “Ri, I’m going to need a new phone. And do you think you could track down Bozer? I need him to do something for me.”</p>
<p>            “Of course.” She moved closer and wrapped her arms around him. Jack was grateful for the closeness. It wasn’t until that moment that he noticed she needed it just as much as he did. Before she pulled away, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek, followed by some loving advice. “Go sit with him for a while Jack. I know it looks scary but he’s still there. You can feel it…somehow that infuriatingly warm optimism still finds a way to beam off of him. I’m sure he’d like to hear your plan. You know how much he hates being out of the loop. You don’t want an earful when he wakes up.”</p>
<p>            Jack grinned at her attempt to persuade him. She wasn’t wrong, and it made him feel better to hear her talk about him in a future tense. “Thanks, Ri. I love you hunny.”</p>
<p>            “I love you too. Please be careful.” She hugged him again before they parted ways. “I’ll send Bozer your direction as soon as I find him.”</p>
<p>            And with that, Jack was finally standing alone. There was no one left there to distract him or give him an excuse not to take the step into Mac’s hospital room. If he didn’t go in now it was for no other reason than him being too afraid. If the roles were reversed, he knew Mac would be right by his side despite his own discomfort.</p>
<p>            Pushing past the nausea inducing fear, Jack slid open the door and stepped into the lowly lit room. It was so quiet that the sounds of the ventilator expanding Mac’s chest were almost deafening. It really did look worse than he feared. Watching Emel as she struggled to fight for life was extremely hard for him to see, but at least she looked like herself. Her body was fighting for her. But Mac… There were so many tubes and wires attached to him. Jack couldn’t imagine him peacefully sleeping like he could with Emel. Mac looked uncomfortable. Even though he was laying completely still, his body was somehow still clenched. They had put him under to minimize his suffering, but Jack could tell the kid was still feeling it all. It was like he was trapped in there waiting for someone to make it stop.</p>
<p>            Jack took a few steps closer and swallowed back the lump in his throat. He wanted to touch him, but he was afraid he might make something worse. He decided on just pulling up a chair as close to his bedside as he could possibly get. Now that he was here and had eyes on his younger counterpart, he was finding it hard to look away. Riley was right. The kid’s essence filled the room even when he was unconscious. He was refusing to tap out and Jack swore he could see Mac’s mind still trying to improvise a way out of the situation. It fueled Jack’s resolve. He wasn’t fighting for this by himself. They were still in it together. Partners.</p>
<p>            “Hey man. Sorry it took me so long to come and visit. I’ve had my hands full. It makes me feel so loved to have you and Em fighting for my attention like this.” Jack laughed at his own joke to mask the sound of exhaustion in his voice. “I know I just got here, but I’ve got to take off for a while. I’ve got a plan, and I’m sure you’d probably hate it, but it’s something I’ve gotta do. Seems like I’ve made a lot of promises over the past few days that I wasn’t able to keep and that’s not sitting right with me. So I’m going after Silas…A man’s only as good as his word and I don’t want you thinking I’m a liar. I’ll get her back, bud. I promise. I already know you’re laying there thinking you’ve failed somehow because you can’t come along to help, and I know you’re probably worried I’m going off half cocked in a tantrum. I’m honored to be the one to tell you that you’re wrong this time. Matty greenlit this party and put yours truly in charge. He’ll never be you, but I’m bringing Russ along to watch my back. As much as he gets under my skin, I think he cares about you too, so I’ll tolerate him just this once for your sake.”</p>
<p>            A gentle throat clearing sounded from the door of Mac’s room and slightly startled Jack. He looked up to see Bozer wearing an apologetic smile. “Sorry to interrupt. Matty wanted me to tell you that everything is ready when you are, and Riley said you were looking for me. How can I help?”</p>
<p>            Jack stood from his spot next to Mac and crossed the room to meet Bozer. Digging in his pocket, he pulled out the spare key to Emel’s front door and extended it to his waiting friend. “I know you’ve already been checking in on him for me, but do you think you could go back to Emel’s place and grab her dog for me?”</p>
<p>            Bozer chattered nervously at Jack’s request. “Bingo? Bring Bingo here? Sure… right… because he’s not already here. He’s back at her place where he’s supposed to be because they don’t let dogs in hospitals. Obviously!”</p>
<p>            Jack eyed him skeptically. “Bozer… why are you acting weirder than usual? What did you do? Please tell me that dog is alright!”</p>
<p>            Bozer stepped closer and lowered his voice before making his confession. “I kinda already might have snuck him in here this morning. He was so sad when I went to feed him this morning Jack. He started crying when I opened the door to leave, and I couldn’t do him like that! Please don’t be mad.”</p>
<p>            “Mad?” Jack chuckled warmly. “I’m not even close to being mad Boz. I knew you were the right man for the job. Is that why nobody’s been able to find you all morning? You’ve been playing hide and seek with the pup? And I’m assuming Riley is in on this?”</p>
<p>            Bozer shrugged sheepishly. “She may have overridden the hospital security cameras so I could get him in the building.”</p>
<p>            Jack shook his head at the antics of his fellow agents. It wouldn’t be their team if someone weren’t constantly doing something they weren’t supposed to. “Think you guys could swing that act again and get him up to Em’s room for me? It would make me feel better to know she has him here while I’m gone.”</p>
<p>            “I’m on it,” Bozer declared! He was out the door in seconds, leaving Jack alone with Mac once again.</p>
<p>            He approached his feeble friend with a final determination. “Listen Mac, I need you to do something for me too. I really need you to stay alive. You keep fighting in here and I’ll keep fighting out there. I guess I’m just asking you to trust me one last time. Trust me to come through for you when it really counts. I’ll be back with Sawyer and she can handle the rest from there. You just need to do your part and keep breathing until that happens. Got it?”</p>
<p>Jack reached up and pushed the shaggy blonde locks from Mac’s forehead and planted his lips there in a goodbye gesture. Mac had never looked more like a little boy than he did right now. He was Jack’s kid and Jack would do anything to protect him. Especially when he wasn’t able to protect himself. “See you soon, kid.”</p>
<p>Jack knew if he didn’t get up and walk away now, he might not ever leave. He wiped away the tear that had found its way past his eyelashes and forced himself to look away from his partner’s broken form.</p>
<p>One down, one to go. He only had a single stop left to make before he could leave in good conscience. And he knew this one would prove to be the most difficult. That’s why he had saved it for last. He had to say goodbye to Emel…</p>
<p>When he walked into her room she was cuddled up in her bed with Bingo by her side. Bozer had made good on his word and delivered in record time. Jack made a mental note to thank him again for this later.</p>
<p>She hadn’t noticed his presence yet, which allowed Jack a moment to simply observe her. A tension that had creased her face before was no longer there. She looked happy and loved. That wasn’t a look Jack had seen in a long time. He knew that was no one’s fault but his own. He used to be the one on the receiving end of that enchanting look in her eyes, and he hated himself for the traces of loss and betrayal that stared back at him now. She’d probably never look at him the same way again, but he’d always known that was a possibility. And yet, he still made the choice to go. The consequences were undeniable, but at the time he didn’t feel like he had any other choice. It wasn’t fair of him to long for what used to be or for what might have been. He gave up that right a long time ago. For now, it was just nice to see her washed in that familiar peace that she always wore so gracefully.</p>
<p>He cleared his throat, and his heart was almost ripped in two when the smile fell from her face at his presence. Now that the danger was over, and it was just the two of them… was it too late? Had too much damage already been done? He mustered up enough hope to greet her with a smile. “I see Bozer has been here. Bingo was in good hands with that one.”</p>
<p>Emel smirked, “Yeah, Bingo really seemed to like him. That’s saying a lot because he usually doesn’t do well with men. Trust issues…”</p>
<p>She trailed off and Jack couldn’t help but wonder if there was a double meaning to her words. He didn’t know where to start next. There was so much that he wanted to say. So much that he needed to say, but not so much as a single syllable formed on his tongue.</p>
<p>Like so many times before, she found her footing before him. Maybe she understood herself better? Or maybe she was braver? Jack was convinced it was probably both. “It’s time, isn’t it? You’re leaving?”</p>
<p>The sadness laced in her voice made Jack want to drop to his knees and beg for forgiveness. Instead, he averted his eyes to escape her pain. He responded to her with a hint of humor in his voice. “Am I that obvious?”</p>
<p>She huffed, “Always…” She patted her dog on the head before lifting her face to meet Jack’s gaze. “Making sure I had Bingo was kind of a dead giveaway. That’s exactly how you left before. You thought you couldn’t stay but you didn’t want me to be alone, so you got me a puppy. It sounds odd, but I feel like I should thank you. He’s been a constant bright spot in an otherwise dull world.”</p>
<p>Jack hadn’t realized the parallel. “Em… I’m so sorry.”</p>
<p>“It’s okay Jack. You know me well. Thank you for having someone bring him to me.” She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. “And thanks for actually coming to say goodbye this time.”</p>
<p>Jack was swimming in guilt. “You deserve so much more, but I figured I at least owed you that much.”</p>
<p>“I need to ask you something Jack.” He could tell she was struggling with whether or not to open this door. “You’re planning on coming back, right?”</p>
<p>Jack sat down on the edge of her bed and cupped her cheek in his hand. “I’m not running anymore darlin’. I’m old. Too tired for that.”</p>
<p>He had hoped that his attempt at humor would ease her a little, but it didn’t seem to do the trick. “That’s not what I meant Jack.”</p>
<p>“What are you asking? I’ll do my best to give you the honest to God truth.”</p>
<p>Emel looked like she was going to burst with the urgency of her question. “I just need you to be careful. I know how important it is to find Sawyer and get her back safely. Trust me, I get it. She’s my best friend. I want more than anything for you to get her back to us in one piece and I trust you completely to do that. I guess what I really need is to hear you say that you don’t plan on making that happen at the expense of your own life. Tell me you know you’re more than just a soldier fulfilling a duty no matter the cost. Tell me you understand that there is someone waiting, someone who loves you and needs you to come back to her.”</p>
<p>Jack scooped her into his arms and buried her into his chest. “Sweetheart, I promise you, I have no intention of dying today. I will do everything within my power to make sure that doesn’t happen. There won’t be any sacrificing myself for the greater good today. I’m way too selfish for something like that.”</p>
<p>Emel laughed at how ridiculously untrue that was. “No, you aren’t. If you were, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”</p>
<p>Jack released his vice grip on her and pulled away so he could see her face. His forehead pressed to hers and he searched her eyes with his own. “I swear on Bruce Willis himself, I will be back and holding you in less than twenty-four hours.”</p>
<p>The grin she rewarded him with finally reached her eyes and Jack felt like his mission in life had been accomplished. “Wow. Bruce Willis, huh? That’s one serious promise you’re making.”</p>
<p>            Knuckles rapped on the glass door of the hospital room and Jack turned to see Matty waiting on the other side. It was time. He forced himself to stand from beside Emel. “I gotta go baby. It’s all gonna be alright. I’m gonna go get your girl. She’s gonna come save my dude. And me and you… we’re going get back some of that time that I wasted.”</p>
<p>            He marked that declaration with a kiss. It was soft and quick, but it held everything he needed her to know. And just in case he wasn’t able to keep his promise, he couldn’t walk away from her without one last touch.</p>
<p>            He needed to go now. He needed to do what he should have done three days ago. He had to walk away from her. It made it easier for him to know that she was safe, and that she would be there waiting for him to come back to. Everyone was waiting on him. Mac was waiting for his best friend to keep a promise. Sawyer was waiting to be found. And Silas was waiting for everything he deserved.</p>
<p>            Jack ran his fingers through the fluffy fur on Bingo’s back. “Watch out for her while I’m gone buddy. Maybe throw some extra cuddles in there from me.”</p>
<p>            “Jack…” Emel recognized his stall tactics. “Get out of here. I’ll be fine.”</p>
<p>            He shook his head and reveled in the familiarity of their exchange. “So bossy.”</p>
<p>            “You like it,” Emel replied.</p>
<p>            “I do,” Jack agreed.</p>
<p>            And then he was gone. Emel’s room felt too quiet. Too empty. It felt like when Jack walked out of the room, he took all the oxygen with him. She trusted him when he said he would be back, but it was hard not to worry. If the events of the last few days were any indicator of how things might go, she felt justified in her worry. There was so much at stake here. The two most important people in her life were directly in the line of danger and there was nothing she could do about it. She found herself silently begging him. <em>Please Jack. Hurry…</em></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Silas’ Not So Secret Hideout. (Thanks Riley)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>            Sawyer was losing track of time. How long had she been here? Where even was here?! Wherever it was, she didn’t like it. Everything seemed dark and cold. There were no windows in the room she was being kept and it distorted her sense of night and day. The only time she left this room was when Silas tried to force her to work in his lab. Not even that room had windows.</p>
<p>            She knew that Silas thought by now it would be getting harder for her to refuse him. He knew she had figured out the solution and his patience had become nonexistent. But as far as she was concerned, he had nothing over her anymore. She was alone now. There was no longer a point or incentive for her to finish the antidote. Silas would only use it to poison millions and she wouldn’t be responsible for that. She already had the weight of Mac’s death on her conscience. She could have saved him, but she wasn’t fast enough. He was barely hanging on when they were separated. She knew the likely outcome his condition took. The only comfort she found was that she didn’t have to watch it happen.</p>
<p>            The uncertainty of Emel and Jack’s fates was plaguing her every waking thought. She could still hear Jack’s screams ringing in her ears as Silas had carried her away from her rescuers. She could only hope that the team Jack had been waiting on was able to make it to them in time. As long as her friends survived, Sawyer could come to terms with not making it out of this with her life. This was the hill that she had decided to die on. She’d already made up her mind. She’d do the deed herself before Silas got anything out of her head.</p>
<p>            The door to her room swung open and revealed Silas’ right-hand man, Reese. This was their routine now. He would come to get her, threaten her a few times before taking her to Silas, and she would tell him to go to hell. She was almost disappointed when he didn’t give her his usual attitude. “Alright, Dr Price. Time to go. He’s waiting.”</p>
<p>            Rebellion had taken root in her. No matter the request, she knew she wouldn’t comply. Even it if did make her life easier to go quietly. “He can keep on waiting for all I care. I’ve already told you all… I won’t help him.”</p>
<p>            Reese lowered himself into the chair across from where Sawyer was seated. She noticed he looked a little worse for wear. Her defiance must have been causing a ripple effect. “Dr. Price. You need to do what he asks. He won’t indulge this much longer. You may be impressive but there is always another scientist to take your place. He will kill you if you don’t give him what he wants.”</p>
<p>            Sawyer shrugged off his warning. “Let him.”</p>
<p>            The man huffed in annoyance and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her behind him out the door. “Suit yourself.”</p>
<p>            Sawyer used every opportunity of freedom from her room to evaluate her surroundings. She was prepared to die but was willing to try escaping first. Any chance to get away from this monster, she’d take it.</p>
<p>            So far, she didn’t notice anything remarkable. Everything looked like the same dead end. She was pretty sure she had deduced that they were underground. The cool chill to the air and the unsettling feeling of claustrophobia was hard to deny. From that conclusion it only stood to reason that this could be the place Silas was referring to when he spoke of having a reserve of his poison set aside for safe keeping. If she couldn’t accomplish anything else, maybe she would find a way to sabotage his efforts before he killed her.</p>
<p>            Reese came to an abrupt stop outside of the door Sawyer knew to be Silas’ office. His booming voice beckoned them inside when he heard the knock. “Aahh! Hello Dr. Price. How are we this morning? I hope you are finding your living quarters to your liking.”</p>
<p>            Sawyer couldn’t help the sarcasm that slipped into her voice. “I’ve never been better. I haven’t let you manipulate me into killing half the country, so I count that as a win in my books. Plus, the mattresses in this place are super comfortable. Where did you get them? I’m going to need one for my apartment.”</p>
<p>            Silas stood from his desk and walked around to lean against it in front of where Reese had seated her. His smile was menacing, and Sawyer felt the chill starting to creep up her spine. “You do enjoy pushing my buttons, don’t you woman?”</p>
<p>            She shrugged and tried to play off her fear as bravado. “I needed a new hobby.”</p>
<p>            “Yes, I suppose you did since you don’t seem to be interested in doing any work around here,” he retorted cheekily.</p>
<p>            Sawyer cut to the chase. “Aren’t you getting tired of playing this game yet Silas? You try to use your powers of persuasion and I tell you that I will never help you. It’s the same thing every time. Nothing ever changes. You know what they say about the definition of crazy. I don’t want to insult your intelligence, but…”</p>
<p>            His roaring laughter startled Sawyer. It was infectious as he prompted the other guards in the room to join in with his madness. He was absolutely delighted… until he wasn’t. The uncomfortable smile that he had plastered across his face was gone in a second and replaced by a murderous glare. He was on her before she even knew what was happening. His goliath hands were around her throat and lifting her from her chair. She felt her back smack against the wall behind her. The force of the impact sent the air rushing from her lungs. Panic started to set in when she realized that his hands had found a tight enough grip to prevent her from taking a deep enough breath to replenish her loss.</p>
<p>            The look in his eyes terrified her as she clawed at his fingers to find some relief. All she saw was euphoria. “If you’d like to play a different game, doctor, I’d be happy to oblige. Let’s change the rules, shall we? You do as I say, and I won’t snap your neck. How does that sound?”</p>
<p>            He loosened his hold around her so that he could hear her response. Her answer came in hoarse gasps, but it was undeniable. “S-sounds like a game I’m willing to lose.”</p>
<p>            “I think that can be arranged,” he promised her ominously. Her fear only lasted for a moment before she welcomed her fate. She had succeeded in manipulating her manipulator. There was nothing left to do now but die.</p>
<p>            It shouldn’t take long. He was a lot bigger than her, and she knew he wasn’t capable of utilizing self-control once he indulged his true nature.</p>
<p>            The last thing she saw before the darkness consumed her was the face of her friend. She could hear her words as if she were sitting right next to her. <em>It’s okay Sawyer. I’m here. You don’t have to do this alone now…</em></p>
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